You’re probably seeing more and more homes with solar panels on the roof around town.
With electric bills climbing and increased power outages across the country, interest in solar is only growing.
If you’re thinking about getting solar panels, you probably have thoughts of running your whole house off the panels.
But is that doable? Can solar panels power a whole house, or is that just a myth?
Below you’ll find the answer to this question.
Can Solar Panels Power A Whole House?
The short answer to the question “Can solar panels power a whole house?” is yes. Absolutely they can.
However, the more in-depth answer is that it depends. Just because solar panels can power a whole home doesn’t mean that they will.
Various factors determine whether you can have solar panels power your entire home.
One of the key factors that go into this is how big your home is and how much energy you use on a daily basis. The more energy you use, the more panels you’ll need on your home (and/or the more efficient you’ll need the panels to be) in order to power your whole house.
This brings us to another key factor here… how many solar panels you get.
You aren’t going to be able to power an entire home with just one solar panel on the roof. So in order to power your whole house, you’ll need to have enough roof space (or yard space if you get ground-mounted panels) to fit enough solar panels to power your home.
The amount of sunlight your solar panels receive also determines whether your solar panel can power your whole house or not. If you place your panels on a roof that does not get much direct sunlight, that will hurt the panels’ ability to generate enough power for your whole home.
Usually, you need at least 5 hours of direct sunlight for a solar panel to power your entire house.
A Deeper Dive Into Some Key Numbers
The average U.S. household uses about 30 kWh per day. However, in very sunny and hot regions, a household can use up to 200 kWh per day.
To be able to power your entire house with a solar panel, you first need to figure out your energy consumption. You can do this easily by looking at your monthly electric bills. Once you figure out how much energy you use each month, you can figure out how many panels you’ll need to generate that much power. In this article, you’ll find a formula you can use to easily figure out the math here.
Don’t Forget The Solar Whole Home Batteries
Solar batteries are also an essential piece of equipment if you genuinely want to be wholly dependent on your solar panels for power. Solar batteries store excess energy that your solar panel produces.
Once the sun goes down, you’ll need to rely on these solar batteries to keep the power running in your home. The batteries are also helpful on cloudy days or if the power in your neighborhood goes out.
And you may need multiple batteries if you want to be totally off-grid and power your whole home night and day.
So, in conclusion, it is possible to power an entire household using solar panels. However, it will depend on various factors such as your daily average energy consumption, the size of the solar panel, the efficiency of your solar panels, the amount of direct sunlight your roof gets, and more.
To get help figuring all this out, we highly recommend contacting a reputable local solar installer. Click the banner below to find one near you.
