How To Size Solar Panels And Batteries

Contractors must be careful not to under or over size an energy storage system.

How to size solar panels and batteries.

Calculate your kwh usage. How to properly size a battery system. Determine your average monthly kwh usage. Each system has several battery options and everything is sized proportionally so the solar panels inverter and battery all work optimally together.

Those solar panels used for residential purposes range from 150 watts to 370 watts per panel depending on the panel size efficiency and cell technology. There are many types of batteries however due to cost and practicality normally only sealed lead acid sla and gel batteries are considered. When sizing a battery bank always size your solar panels bigger than your battery bank to be able to compensate for factors such as voltage drop power fluctuations and energy loss due to wear on the system. Sizing solar batteries is one of the first steps in designing your off grid system.

You ll want to have full 12 months of usage to be able to look at peaks and. Sizing a system without reducing demand is like heating a home in the winter while leaving the front door open. Not all solar panels are the same. To charge a battery a generating device must apply a higher voltage than already exists within the battery.

Observe power draw and calculate amp hour requirements. How to size your off grid solar batteries step 1. The power output size. We offer off grid packages complete with solar panels racking cable and a power center.

Gather the kilowatt hours kwh usage from your electric bill. Calculating your amp hour needs. Plug the answer from the previous step into the following calculation which accounts for standard energy losses of solar pv systems kw x 1 3 increase size of pv system by 30 kw actual size of pv system you need e g. Without batteries you can still have a solar power system but you must use the power as it is collected and depending on the conditions the output may be unstable.

According to stacey delzeit trojan battery co s senior applications engineer if the solar battery bank is undersized its lifespan will be reduced. Solar installers have many different options when it comes to batteries but they aren t one size fits all. Add up your kwh usage for 12 months and divide by 12 to figure out your average monthly. To determine the inverter size we must find the peak load or maximum wattage of.

50 watt 100 watt and 160 watt. Once you have sized your battery bank and solar panel array determining which. 3 x 1 3 3 9in this example you would need a 3 9 kw solar pv system to satisfy your home s energy needs.