Solar Panel Wattage Per Square Foot

As you can see there is no exact solar panel cost per square foot.

Solar panel wattage per square foot. The average sized solar panel takes up an area of 17 6 square feet and produces 265 watts under direct sunlight. But at 20 watts per square foot a system rated to produce 2 kilowatts would cover roughly 150 square feet while a 3kw system would take up about 225 square feet. The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot. While this may not be typical it would not be too difficult to find three homes that fit this situation.

For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way. But every home is unique and could use more or less power than the average home. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. Solar panel cost per square foot 5.

Installing a solar panel system costs an average of 23 597 and dropping most homeowners pay between 16 532 and 30 820 expect to pay 2 50 to 3 50 per watt with most systems in the 3kw to 10kw range until the end of 2020 you can deduct 26 of the installation costs with the federal investment tax credit itc. How many solar panels are needed to power an average house. Energy information administration in 2018 the average monthly electricity consumption for a home in the united states was 914 kwh per month or about 30 5 kwh per day and 11 000 kwh per year. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would.

The first is to look at the peak possible instantaneous solar power production per square foot for a particular solar panel. In the three scenarios listed above all of the homes were of different sizes yet used the same amount of electricity. Sizing a solar panel system to your home s electric usage can be done by taking look at your energy bills over a year. According to the u s.

To produce the maximum amount of power per square foot a solar panel has to be well designed to handle temperature spectrum angle and amount of light. For a 300 watt solar panel with dimensions 64 inches x 39 inches 1 61 meters squared or 17 31 square feet the peak instantaneous electricity production per square foot at stc is 14 58 watts per square foot. In order to find a range for number of solar panels we compared arizona and maine s solar panel production ratios 1 31 and 1 61 the highest and lowest in the u s. However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives.

We then took 11 000 kwh and divided it by the respective ratios and then divided that number by 250 the typical panel wattage. That translates to just over 15 watts per square foot.