The purpose of this article is to address some common questions about solar panel cost. For practical purposes, solar panel costs fall into a couple of categories: the cost of an individual solar panel, and the cost of installing enough solar panels to power a house. Solar Panels are the part of the system that does the actual conversion of sunlight to current and are the most critical element in the systems ability to power your home. To learn more about the heart of any solar power system, visit Residential Solar Panels.
For serious savings, though, it’s certainly worth considering building your own solar panels. This is much easier than you may think. If you go the route of building a solar panel, you can reduce the cost to as little as $200. Is it possible to build a solar panel for under 200 dollars? You can get more information by looking at this guide Homemade Solar Panel. In this guide, you will get specific instructions on what is best to build based on the size of your house and your location. Additionally, you will also get step-by-step diagrams on how to build your solar power system.
Also, it’s worth looking into the various federal, state and local tax credits, rebates and incentives that can help homeowners pay for this type of project. In some cases, people have saved up to half of the cost of their solar power systems in this way. You can find information about these incentives on government websites.
To understand how many solar panels you’ll need in order to power your house, you’ll need to know how much electricity your household uses. If you have some of your previous electricity bills available, you can see how many kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity you’re using in a typical month. If you multiply this number by 1000, you’ll see the number of watt-hours you’re using in a month. Divide this figure by 30 to get your average daily electricity usage in watt-hours. Now, just divide this number by the average number of hours per day of sunlight that you get in your location. It’s usually preferable to use the nubmer of hours of sun for the day with the fewest hours sunlight in the year. This number will show you how much electricity you need to generate per hour.
Most installed systems cost in the area of $7-9 per watt. To find how much it will cost for a number of solar panels sufficient to power your house, multiply the final figure from the previous step by $9, to be safe.
I have a solar power calculator spreadsheet that can assist you with these calculations. Input the kWh usage number from your electric bill. The spreadsheet will then show you how much it will cost for enough solar panels to power your home completely. The calculator is included in my 6 part mini course on home solar and wind power.
Now, you have an idea as to how much it will cost to power your home entirely through solar power. It’s likely that it will require a large investment. Remember to research any applicable tax credits, rebates and incentives; these can cut the costs significantly. If you’re able to build your own solar panels, you can lower the cost even more.
What is solar power generation? For further facts about solar power generation, go to Solar Power Generation.
