What the First Thing – https://Likewindsolar.com

Before you look at your current bill.

Read this if you landed on this page first.

Lets discuss the Solar business.

Solar Company Types.

Solar manufacturers produce their solar equipment that is installed on your home.

Most manufacturers generally do not provide solar panel installation or financing but use installers, dealers and wholesalers.

Wholesale solar are companies do everything to get you set up with the solar system from buying the equipment from the manufacture to configuring the layout of your system to recomending dealers or installer.

They are sometime called full-service to procure the system, provide financing, and perform the installation.

Solar dealers are companies have contracted with the manufacturers or wholesaler to sell solar products.

Some dealers have their own solar installation team, while others use installer form other sources.

Solar installers are companies actually come out to your house and set up the system of panels created by manufacturers, dealers and wholesalers.

Most solar installers are local companies that operate in that area.

Consider this….Where do you live?

Yes…it’s a dumb question…but we are trying to put in the thinking mode.

Another dumb question….Do you live in the city or do you live in the country?

Yes, you know where you live…but what if you got a message from the Utility Company.

” The power is going to be turn off“.

Why? An emergency? Fire, Flood, An accident, some unforeseen even that has occurred.

Next question ?

For How Long?

Four hour, eight hours, twenty four hours and its makes a big difference…

The question is… What should we do?

A quick phone call to the Utility Company.

They respond with a typical answer…its maintenance or we think we will have

the power on in ……?

Ok …now what?

What about the food in the refrigerator?

What else?

There could be a big difference between 4 hour and 8 hours …let alone 24 hours.

The point here is… it may be time to sit down and plan some back up strategy.

This also could called, ” The Emergency Back Up Plan”.

Well how about water or hot water and/or even lights…

Well you get the idea..

After you made a family decision …lets calculate the total watts needed to keep the home power during the emergency.

Some common Watts **See Solar Watt Calculator

Central Air Conditioner NA 5,000

Electric blanket 200

Electric Clothes Dryer NA 3,400

Shaver 15

Oven 3,000

1/4” dril 250

Hair Dryer 1,538

Well Pump (1/3-1 HP) 480-1200

Dishwasher 1200-1500

Laptop 60-250

Computer 300-750

Coffee Machine 1,500

Microwave 1,500

LCD TV 213

Toaster oven 1,200

Iron 1,100

Stereo 10-30

Toaster 1,100

Satellite dish 30

Refrigerator/ Freezer**

Microwave 500-1500

20 cu. ft. (AC) 1411 watt-hours/day*

Air Conditioner NA 1,100

Vacuum Cleaner 500

LIghts 100 watt incandescent bulb 100

Freezer 15 cu. ft. (Upright 1240 watt-hours /day*

Water heater 479

Sink Waste Disposal 450

50 watt DC incandescent 50

Cell Phone – recharge 2-4 watts

Blender 300

* TV’s,VCR’s and other devices left plugged in, but not turned on, still draw power.

**To estimate the number of hours that a refrigerator actually operates at its maximum wattage, divide the total time the refrigerator is plugged in by three. Refrigerators, although turned “on” all the time, actually cycle on and off as needed to maintain interior temperatures.

Humidifier 300-1000

Monitor 150

Printer 120

Heaters*** Portable N 1500

Portable Fan 100

Ceiling Fan 100

Waterbed Heater NA 400

Stereo 60

Furnace Blower 300-1000

Cable Box 20

Clothes Dryer – Gas Heated 300-400

Clock Radio 7

* The daily energy values listed here are for the most efficient units

Now- Look at your current electric bill. The bill can gives us some indication of usage and then we can analyze it to determine what addition watts you might need to size solar power system that best suits your needs.

More Information on Sizing Your Solar PV System

“How much will it cost to power my XX,XXX square foot house?”

“How many solar panels do I need to eliminate my electric bill?”

We get questions like this every day from homeowners going solar.

It’s all going to depend on your electricity usage.

Collect your electric bills for the past 12 months or more.

At the top of the bill It will tell you what you used and the charges.

These charges are based in kWh.

For example supposed you used 1100 kWh in January.

Febuary 990 kWh

March 1000 kWh

You get the idea….

Get an average of kWh used on a monthly basis. Let’s say that this number is 1100 kWh per month.

Now divide your average monthly usage by 30 to get your average daily kWh usage. In this case, it would be about 37kWh per day.

To keep things simple for this rough estimate, we’ll assume that a 250W solar panel will produce about 1kWh a day.

**Keep in mind that this is a rough estimate, based on a site location getting 4 hours of sunlight per day**

Assuming that you use about 37 kWh per day, you would need about 37 solar panels to meet 100% of your average energy needs.

Based on your current usage, how much of this do you want to offset with a solar power system?

100% …75%…. 50% ? Multiply accordingly.

Let’s say you wanted your solar system to account for 80% of your energy consumption.

37 kWh per day x 0.80 = 29.6 kWh

Since one solar panel produces about 1 kWh per day, you would use 30 solar panels to account for 80% of your average consumption.

Note…. Larger panels will increase total output.

The purpose of this is to give a rough idea of how many solar panels you will require.

This tool provides a quick number only…..

We recommend an electrical contractor design a system for you.

Once you’ve calculated your average kWh use and determined the percentage that you plan to offset with solar…..Call us for a free quote

We’ll help you design a complete system that’s specific to your roof and geographical location.

There are other values that also effect your needs.

For example: hot water heaters, variable speed pool pumps, LED lighting, and solar pool heating.

These should be considered because they could reduce your energy consumption and allow us to design a smaller solar power system which would lower the inital cost of your project..

For example a large house in Hollywood , Florida may have different heat requirement then a house is Hollywood California. Depending on the time of year. Hollywood. Florida average temperature is 73 where Hollywood, California is 65

When these different systems are considered then the total cost for installation change the design.

If you heat water using a solar system then the total or entire panel installation would change.

Like wise when you consider heated swimming pools.

Is that two systems.

Yes, it might be.

But when you consider the total size of the house.. it could be a huge savings.

Consider an additional hot water solar panels on the roof of a building contain water pipes. When the sun hits the panels and the pipes, the heat of sunlight warms them.

Before we get to Step Two…More savings

Post navigation

Home⟶

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Search for:

COMPANY

THE FINE PRINT