Real Estate

Lower Your Electricity Bill: Battery and Solar Calculations for Residential Use

It’s that time of the month again. He opens his mailbox (or for the more progressive, his email) and finds the most dreaded invoice: his Hydro invoice.

Many homeowners accept the fact that they will have to continue paying for this utility. However, there is another group that is quietly exploring alternatives. These people are looking for ways in which they can generate their own energy and reduce, or in some cases eliminate, their dependence on the electrical grid.

The solution that this article explores is the combination of solar photovoltaic (photovoltaic) energy and small-scale battery storage to generate and store the energy that the home needs. To be honest, exploring this alternative comes at a cost; however, it is one that will benefit you and your family in the future. By installing a solar panel in (or if you have the capacity) near your home, you can generate power. This energy is then stored in a series of batteries that can be “used” when needed. Through inverter technology, your matrix can prioritize battery consumption demand before the grid is used.

Depending on the amount of energy you use and the number of solar panels and batteries you install, your payback can come as fast as 6 years if you use equipment that will work for more than 20 years (which means approximately 14 years of ‘free’ energy through the installation of a system). Sounds interesting right? But where do you start?

If you are trying to calculate how much ‘solar’ you will need, there is some simple math you can do. If you look at your utility bill, you will see how much energy you used. This is displayed in kWh. Your bill may also show your usage in kWh for the last year.

There are two ways of looking at this. First, there is the average of its use over the twelve months. Using this method will result in the design of a system that will result in periods when the energy generated will not provide enough power for your entire home, but will be averaged throughout the year. The second way is to design for your ‘peak’ use; In most residences, this will be during the summer, when air conditioners and swimming pools drive up electricity costs. In this case, you can produce too much power and end up “returning” some power to the grid once the batteries are fully charged. In both cases, you want to calculate the average daily usage in kWh. For illustration purposes, let’s say you need to produce an average of 30 kWh per day.

To determine the number of panels, we must take the daily use of kWh and divide it by the number of hours of sunlight. If we used seven hours for the calculation, we would have 30 kWh divided by 7 hours or 4.29 kW from your solar array. If you are using 250w panels in your array, the following formula would apply: 4.29 (kW) divided by 250/1000 (kW) or 17.1 panels would be needed to compensate for 30 kWh per day under * ideal * conditions.

At this point, you need to ensure that your roof or ‘area’ can accommodate 18 (cannot have 17.1) panels and that it receives seven hours of sunlight a day and that there are no obstacles blocking the panels.

The best thing to do after performing these simple calculations is to locate someone who can help you with the engineering and calculations, as well as the implementation of your project. If completed successfully, this solution could eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, your energy bill.

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