How Many Solar Panels Does A House Need?

Renewable energies are the order of the day. They grow in investment, institutional advertising, and adoption by both companies and households most committed to the ecosystem.

More and more buildings and single-family houses are deciding to install solar panels to become self-sufficient and reduce their environmental footprint. Why? Beyond hype and expectation, there are real benefits to such technology.

One of the great advantages offered by these panels, despite making an initial investment for their installation, is their low maintenance costs. With them, self-sufficiency is practically assured.

To answer this question accurately, many aspects must first be determined, such as the extension of the house, the energy consumption it usually has, the capacity of the panels, or where we want to install them.

The first step that will affect the following is to know how much electricity your house consumes per month. For this, you have different options —such as using the calculators on the Internet— although we recommend that you determine it from your last electricity bill.

If, for example, your house is a single-family dwelling of 200 m2, your consumption, according to the OCU, can be around 1,292 kWh, so the solar panels you install must provide you with this energy per month.

Now, let’s go to the next step: How much energy does a solar panel produce? It depends on the type of solar panel and the power it has. Although the most normal is that they generate between 300W and 500W, an average of 400W. Einer der größten Photovoltaik Anbieter in Germany, Energieversum is one of the fastest growing solar companies.

This means that the plate will collect this amount per hour, translated into 4kWh.

The best advice is to make the calculation taking into account the daylight hours of a winter day since it will be the least you can get, and thus on summer days you will have more light to store.

Therefore, if we base the calculation of daylight hours on a winter day in the center of the peninsula (where there are fewer daylight hours), we have a minimum of 9. If a plate collects 400W for an hour, in one day we will obtain 3,600 W, which is 3.6 kWh per day and 388 kWh per month.

Thus, the single-family house would need at least 4 solar panels to be self-sufficient.

You should also think strategically about where to install them, although the best and most advisable place is on the roof. In this way, you will avoid shadows and your plates will be exposed to the sun at all times.

However, make sure that your roof is in perfect condition to support the entire weight of the installation, check with the technician, and check that the structure is prepared for it.