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How Much Solar Power do you Need?
When it comes to home solar power, many people are concerned about two questions: (1) how much does it cost and (2) how much solar energy do you need for your home?
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that a residential solar installation should be 5-7 kilowatts (kW) in size to generate the approximately 920 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month that most American homes use. Given current solar power costs for solar panels and installation, you’ll be investing about $30-45,000 to be able to go off-grid with your own home energy.
However, federal, state, local and utility incentives can help you reduce that cost, if you qualify! (here in my home state of Oregon, the savings are up to 50%). But, if you go with a DIY solar panel system, the savings can be even greater!
Before you consider an entire home solar panel system, think about easing into solar energy. We love these “7 Baby Steps to Go Solar” from CalFinder:
#1—Install DIY kits with built-in panel inverters, or microinverters, like those offered by Solar Sphere’s DIY Solar Kits or Sustainablog’s green shopping site. These panels deliver AC (alternating current, the kind your electrical panel requires), and are easier to wire into your home’s electrical system.
#2—Or choose GoGreenSolar’s 250-watt, grid-tied, Plug N Play Solar Power Kit, which plugs directly into any household outlet and delivers 1 kWh of electricity a day. Plug in 10, and you have lighting and emergency electrical backup covered.
#3—Akeena Solar, whose 175-watt Andalay solar panels won the Kansas Climate and Energy Project Take Charge Challenge, is merging with Westinghouse, the appliance giant, and changing its name accordingly. In 2009, Akeena sold its trademark plug and play Andalay panels through retailers, including 21 Lowe’s locations in California.
#4—Ready Solar offers a “kit in a box” with web-based performance monitoring whose modular design allows for simple expansion.
#5—And Armageddon Energy plans to offer a solar panel in the form of hexagon that – snapped into three other panels – forms a “solar clover.” One unit delivers .33 kW, and the product should reach the market in 2011, but like many too-good-to-be-true products advertised as plug and play, installation is slightly more complicated.
#6—The same is true of Lumeta PowerPly’s [video] flexible “peel ‘n stick” solar modules (think Contac Paper), which deliver 2.25 kW in 34 minutes on flat roofs.
#7—Last, but far from least, consider Clarian Technologies, which currently offers a truly plug and play unit called Sunfish, rated at 1 kilowatt and costing about $3,000 (or a mini-Sunfish at 200 watts and $800 or less). The units, equipped with all-UL electronics and a GFCI circuit breaker to protect homeowners and linemen from electric shock, are lightweight and help reduce distribution line losses.
Solar power for your home could be easier and cheaper than you think
While you wonder about how much solar energy you need for your home, consider the fact that solar panel prices have dropped 50% or more recently, solar technology continues to improve efficiency of solar cells and rebates and tax incentives continue to be generous in the economy and under the current administration.
Canadian Solar
