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If, in your quest to be self-sufficient in powering your home, you decide that you would like to go down the ‘do-it-yourself’ road and build your own solar panels, you will have to do a bit of homework and find out how much power you use over 12 months – check your power bills (while you’re checking your usage, check how much you have paid over that time, also!). Then divide the total yearly consumption by 375 to find out your average per day.
The next thing to do is work out how big a system you will need. The average production of a panel 1 square yard in size is 90W, so you will need to know what is the average per day of sunlight hours where you live – (get this from the weather bureau or whatever government department handles this kind of information). Multiply the 90W by the number of sunlight hours per day to give you the daily production of power from one panel, 1 square yard in size.
If you then use your daily production from one solar panel and divide it into your daily average consumption rate, it will give you an idea of how many panels you will need to be totally self-sufficient in powering your home.
Now this is where it gets really interesting because you have several choices:
1. You can set up a system which will meet all your power needs
2. You can set up a system which will meet a percentage of your power
needs and use the grid for the rest
With either of those choices, you can also opt to reduce your actual
power consumption, through energy-saving products and a more
mindful approach to how you run your home.
Whatever you decide to do, it will be a step in the right direction, saving yourself and the environment from further loss.
And it is time to take that step.
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Tags: energy saving, home power consumption, power bills, power consumption, power needs, self-sufficient, solar panel