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5 Things You Should Know About Solar Panels Before Installing Them in Your HomeWednesday, September 17, 2014 ![]() However, even in less sun soaked places, panels can be installed and will still help reduce your power bill to some extent. That said; let’s look over some important factors that you need to consider before installing a solar panel system in your own home or business. This is a fairly big decision and you need to have at least your basic facts straight if you want to go ahead with it.
1. BASIC CONSIDERATIONS If your energy bills are particularly high, then you might also consider ways in which you can lower them to some extent by cutting back on using electrical lighting unnecessarily, shutting off certain appliances and maybe buying less energy intensive home appliances. You may also consult a professional electrician on how you can optimise your electrical wiring and lighting locations at home to reduce your overall electricity consumption. With your energy consumption calculated, you need to know how much peak sunlight you can expect for your particular region. This is going to vary greatly depending on where you live but generally speaking you should be able to count on at least a few hours of peak sunlight per day for half the year. Furthermore, to improve this, your panels should be installed on a southward facing surface for maximal sun exposure. The average American home uses about 14,000 watt hours per day of electricity. You’ll want to cover as much of this as possible with your panel array.
2. HOW MUCH FOR HOW MUCH ENERGY? Well, modern PV (photo voltaic) cells generate about 70 miliwatts per square inch; this means that if you can get 4 hours of usable sunlight per day, you’d be receiving about 280 miliwatt hours per inch per day. With these quantities, you’d need to install at least 51,000 square inches of solar paneling; this amounts to 354 square feet of panels. These will provide you with an estimated 14,000 watt hours during their peak operating times under perfect conditions. However, since you won’t normally get perfect conditions and because the sun only shines for a fraction of each day, actual energy savings from such an array may be somewhat less than complete. Nonetheless, these 354 square feet (assuming you live in a typical middle class home) will still drastically reduce your annual power bill by as much as 90%.
3. EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS Certain modern PV solar panels actually have their own built-in micro inverters attached to each one of the individual cells. These are beneficial because they allow you to grow your solar array however you please without having to replace inverters to fit expanding or shrinking size requirements. They also allow for easier installation and lose less energy absorption ability under conditions of partial shade.
4. COST An array such as our example above will probably cost you a minimum of $16,000 for the panels alone and another twice that for the inverter and battery storage system. Furthermore, the battery does have to be replaced every few years, adding to your costs. Micro-inverter based PV cells are going to save you some expense by removing the cost of a single inverter, but the individual cells are more expensive than normal PV modules. A key cost reduction factor will be in the energy reduction measures you take. This means that before you even install your system, you should have switched to energy saving appliances, reduced the use of unnecessary lighting and decreased the number of unneeded electronics in your home. These cutbacks will allow you to reduce the size of your power bill before you even start with Solar panel installation.
5. RETURN ON INVESTMENT With $1350 saved each year, your $33,000 investment (at the lower end of the cost scale) will be able to completely pay for itself within a little over 20 years. However, there are a few other factors that can shorten your ROI time rapidly. First of all, there is a federal tax credit available to homeowners that cover 30% of your solar array installation costs. In addition to this, there may be a number of annual or one time state tax and utility credits that you can take advantage of in your particular state. If you live in another country, similar programs may apply for your local jurisdiction and any of them will help shorten your ROI. Finally, you should also bear in mind the inflating cost of grid based electricity, and this is rising at an annual rate of 5% in many places. What this means is that the amount you don’t pay to the utility company each year will more than likely grow, shortening the amount of time it takes you to pay for your initial solar array installation. Source: Greener Ideal Solar
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