Approximate Calculation of minimum number of solar panels required for your solar power system.
Designing a power system is a prolonging task. The prime activity in designing a solar based power system is to calculate the number of panels required to generate enough power to satisfy the building requirements. The power system can be installed for commercial or personal use. |  |
Few people install it in their houses or industries to back their electricity requirements and also to escape the high rates of government electricity. To design your own solar power system for personal use, You must know the number of panels required to generate the required power. The power consumption by any building can be calculated by your general monthly electricity bill.
Data required are:
1. Power consumed per month in KWhCan be deduced by reading the monthly electricity bills and calculating the average power consumed per month by dividing the sum of all monthly bills by 12 months. |  |
2. Sun hours per monthThis data can be directly obtained from the daily sun hour data on the internet and to be multiplied by 30 to get the monthly average sun hours. |  |
3. Derate factorIt is the ratio which represents the loss occurred due to the conversion of DC to AC. |  |
The Number of panels also depend on:
1. Geographical location, climate, sunlight in the region as sun hours.
2. The orientation of the building, roof/rack mount and also solar exposure.
3. Obstacles reducing solar radiation.
4. And mainly depends on the installer’s method of installation.
 | Combining all the above-mentioned factors: This provides you with the total Kw needed to affect an electricity bill. |
Finding the capacity of the solar based power system. To find the minimum number of panels required to support the system, divide the system’s capacity by the solar panel power you choose.
Minimum number of solar panels = system capacity/power generated by a single solar panel
