How To Estimate The Quantity Of Solar Power Available At Your House.

The quantity of solar energy available is determined by the number of photons that

reach your photo voltaic cell, and whether these photons stimulate an electron into motion thus creating a current. The quantity of photons, or amount of sunlight, that strikes your photo voltaic cell needs to be determined to see how many cells or solar panels you will require for your solar system. The Amount of solar power is going to be a function of your latitude, tree and cloud cover, as well as the time of year, and will vary considerably from area to area.

How do we Measure Solar Power?

The two main factors that are considered are the angle of the sun's rays to your solar panets and the amount of hours of sunshine available at your homes locale. Insolation defines the relationship and will be measured in kilowatt hours per square meter per day which is called irradiance. A solar irradiance of one thousand watts per square meter is the standard for the energy obtained from the sun at noon in the middle of summer. Normally solar irradiance is measured in the quantity of kilowatts per square meter per day therefore if it were possible for the sun to be up for 8 hours and always at the highest power, solar irradiance will be 8..

Solar irradiance will vary considerably during the year particularly in northern latitudes. For example, Chicago will have an irradiance of just 1.6 in January, yet it will be 6.1 in June, and the yearly average will be 4.0. This means that solar energy in December is 70% less than in June. Nearer to the equator, we find that the same numbers for Phoenix are 3.0 in January and 7.8 in June for an average of 5.5 for the year. If you are looking for an off power grid application, your solar system will have to end up being 2-3 times greater than required by June numbers. Values for your location are easily accessible on the internet since NASA's weather satellites have been compiling this data around the globe for many years.

You will be able to Plan your System Size Using Irradiance for your Location.

If we know how many kilowatts we require to satisfy the electric needs of our home, we are now in a position to size our system. Because the goal in a grid-tied system is to pay the utility company zero dollars, we can use average irradiance to determine your system size. If however, you want an off-grid system, you will need to use the December value for irradiance, and the system will have extra capacity for the majority of of the year.

To compute the number of watts your system must generate, divide your daily electrical power required by the irradiance. A grid-tied home in Phoenix using 20kw per day divided by the average irradiance of 5.5 would need to generate 3600 watts per hour. You can then divide the system wattage by the output of your photovoltaic panels to figure out the number of panels needed. In our illustration, if the solar panel is rated at 150 watts, you would require 24 solar panels.

by: Bruce Clancy

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