Transcript
One of the first questions we are often asked is: “How many solar modules do I need” or really “Which solar system should I look at?” Well, of course that depends.
It depends on your usage, your lifestyle, your future plans, what you want to achieve and whether or not you will get a solar battery now or in the future.
So what we're going to do is go through a bit of it, I'm not going to give you enough to make a tough decision but at least enough information to let you know where to start and by the end of the video, I'll give you a quick one Give a formula that will at least get you to the next step.
The first thing to look at is how much energy are you using? You know, and there are limits, if you use just a tiny bit of energy every day then solar may not really be worth your while. You also need to consider whether you use a lot of energy during the day or only at night and take this into account. You will also need to check to see if your system is battery operated as it is likely that at some point in the future you will be able to battery your solar system.
You also need to be careful about your lifestyle. Do you work from home and will you continue to work from home? Do you have children? How old are you? For example, many of us know that teenagers only eat electricity all day, every day until they move out of their homes. Or are you retired? You also need to see what your future plans are. Are you going to retire in the future? What age are children, will you have more children?
This is really important. It is likely that the whole world will move towards electric vehicles. It is likely that either your next car or the car after that will be an electric vehicle, including a used one, and would you like solar power to be charged for you?
Next, should you look at what you want to achieve? Are you really only interested in financial savings and don't care about anything else? That's a lot of people. Are you looking for network independence or what we call network integration? Are you looking for a backup in case the power goes out? Do you have frequent power outages at home? Are you looking for solar for ecological reasons? Again, solar power is one of the most powerful ways an individual can help with climate change.
Or are you looking for smart energy management? A solar system is usually a central component of your energy management at home. So let's look at a quick formula to help you move on to the next step.
The really easy way to look at the solar system these days is to take your average daily consumption, which is on your electricity bill and is expressed in kilowatt hours. So look at your average daily consumption and divide that by four. For example, if your bill says you use 40 kilowatt hours of energy per day, then your solar system is probably the right size. If you're using 25, it's probably around six, and so on. A few years ago we dimensioned the solar system so that it corresponds to the daily energy consumption.
But today we're really only getting back to your 24 hour usage pattern because during the life of the solar system you are likely to receive a solar battery, so you want to maximize the benefits you get today.
The second way, and many people do, to develop a properly sized solar system is to simply maximize your roof area. The reason people do this is because a large system isn't much more expensive to install than a small system. There isn't a huge difference in cost. So you can also invest as much as possible. You get feed-in tariffs for every excess electricity you generate today, and when you buy an electric vehicle you are really helping to lower operating costs.
The third factor is of course the budget, what you can afford, what you want to spend. But again, just a word, if you are on a budget, it pays to buy a better quality system that may be smaller than one of those larger systems that is not as good. The smaller system will usually bring more savings in the long run.
I hope this helped me what size solar panel to get. As you can see, it depends on you and what you want to achieve. We have given you a brief formula, but it is usually worthwhile to discuss all of these options with one of our employees. Please give us a call if we can help.
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