Why Is Our Solar Panel Generating Fewer Kwh

The states most of us would consider sunny are spread out in the rankings.

Why is our solar panel generating fewer kwh. Dirt 5 when your solar panels are put on your roof airborne particulates like dust will settle on the panels glass. Check out our solar panel calculator to see what size solar panel system is right for your energy usage in your specific home. A common size solar panel array is usually around 5kw and takes up around 400 square feet of space. Consequently the capacity factor of the solar energy system here is much lower than that of phoenix at about 16.

Solar panel systems are measured in terms of kw. If your solar panels for example continuously output 1 kw of power for a whole 60 minutes you will have produced 1 kwh of energy. As we have seen the capacity factor varies quite a bit for solar photovoltaic systems depending on the location. So now that we know you need to produce about 6kw of ac output we can work backwards to figure out how many solar panels you need.

Let s assume 10 for this estimate. Most solar panels lose about 10 of their rated power on a 25 c day more if it is hotter. Aside from the size of the solar panel system you have installed you also have to consider the direction of the roof the panels will be installed on and the angle of the roof with a south facing roof and panels at a 35 degree. A 10 kw solar system can produce between 11 000 kilowatt hours kwh.

An array of this size can produce an average of 350 850 kwh of ac energy per month. That said there is a simple equation to calculate the amount of kilowatt hours kwh your solar panel system will produce. So if your yearly energy usage is much lower than 11 000 kwh you should consider installing fewer solar panels. Here a 10 kw system would generate about 14 000 kwh during the year.

In the example above the solar panel is producing 1 5 kwh per day which ends up being about 45 kwh per month. That s enough energy to power some small appliances without too much issue but if you want to cover the energy used by your property s climate control systems or large cooking appliances you ll need more solar panels. For example solar panels in arizona will produce the most electricity out of all of these states and will result in savings of 924 per year. The amount of electricity you use or generate is defined in kwhs.

Kw measures power and kwh measures energy. To cut a long story short solar panels don t like to be hot. After all solar panels use sunlight to produce energy so the amount of sunlight will directly affect the final power output. Our most popular option with customers is to install around 12 14 solar panels combined with our 4 8kwh solar battery.

If you are trying to maximize the amount of energy that your solar panel system can generate then your solar. Of course one of the really important factors that will affect the power output of your solar panel is how much sun it manages to get on a daily basis.