Im trying to save money in my light bill so i’m thinking of buying some solar panels I need to produce 2000 kwh and how do i go by connecting it to my house
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Im trying to save money in my light bill so i’m thinking of buying some solar panels I need to produce 2000 kwh and how do i go by connecting it to my house
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you need to produce 2000 kwh per month? I guess so.
2 solar panels of 45 watts would give you 90 watts, which is equivalent to .090 kwh if you run these for 1 hour! So for 24 hours you will get .090×24= 2.16 kwh and for the whole month = 2.16×30=64.8 kwh! Not even closer to your requirement!
For 2000 kwh per month you would need =2000/30/24=2.77 kW = 2770 watts of solar panels!
I agree with MAHB. Also, I would add that her calculations assume that the sun is shining constantly at a level high enoough to maintain that output level, for 24 hours each day for the whole month!! Add to that the fact that a solar panel produces dc current. If you use a fairly efficient DC to AC inverter, lets say at 66.6% efficiency, you would then also be loosing about1/3 or 33.3% of your energy just doing the conversion!
Hate to say it but its a lost cause!
Much much more, the other answer assumes the sun is shining 24 hours a day, which it is not.
2000 kW-hour is a unit of energy, I assume you mean that per month. On an average, that is a power level of
2000 kW-hour x 1 day/24 hour x 1 month/30 days = 2.8 kW on the average for the month.
But your solar array can only deliver power for a few hours a day, say 6 hours per day on the average. That means it has to deliver 2.8×4 = 11 kW of power when the sun is shining.
When you count in battery storage and losses, and losses in the inverter, you probably need at least 15 kW for the array.
My guess is that this would cost US$ 20k to 50k for the panels, batteries, electronics, and installation.
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Others above have covered the calculations quite well.
For a real world data point, each 1000 watts of solar array in my area of northern California produces about 2000 kWh of energy per *year*.
Those little 45-watt kits from Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, etc., can be fun, but they have amorphous silicon panels, and from what I’ve heard, are very optimistically rated. One guy who analyzed the kit said that the panels actually returned more like 5 watts each in bright sun, for a total of 15. Also, those kits are designed to charge a lead-acid battery, and provide stand-alone electric power. They cannot be connected to hosue wiring. Given the inefficiencies of storing energy in a battery, I suspect what you would get is enough to run a laptop for maybe a couple hours a day, or a small compact fluorescent bulb for twice that.