| Austin Solar Panel Installation |
| Written by Mark D. Morris | |
| Friday, 28 May 2010 | |
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The information here can help you to estimate an approximate size and cost of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system for a home located around Austin, Texas. The information can be used in other location with some adjustments.
The information here can help you to estimate an approximate size and cost of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system for a home located around Austin, Texas. The information can be used in other location with some adjustments. This is important information to have prior to consulting a professional who will provide a more definitive estimate. It's also a good place to begin if you are considering installing a system your self. Most utility companies use the kilo watt hour (kWh) as the unit of billing for electricity. An appliance rated at 1000 watts (1 kilo watt) will consume 1 kWh when operated for one hour. There are multiple factors that will alter the final decision on what size and therefore cost of your system. Factors such as required kilowatt hours (kWh) per day, your location, direction of your panels, shading, etc. You will need to estimate your daily average kWh usage. One of the best ways to do this is to examine your electric bills and find the average daily kWh usage. This should be based on at least one year (preferably more) of usage. Generally you are billed in monthly billing cycles. Calculate the average daily kWh consumption for 12 or more cycles. Do this by dividing the total usage for the cycle by the number of days in the cycle. Then average the results from each of the 12 cycles. The average daily usage in the US is approximately 30 kWh/day. At some point in the process you will need to decide what percentage of your electric will be provided by solar. This can be any amount up to 100% or more if you wish to provide for future increase or sell power back to the utility company. For our purposes here we will do our estimate with a desire to replace 50% of the US average or 15 kWh. Solar systems are not measured in square feet or meters but in kW generating capacity. A 1 kW solar system will generate one kWh of DC current with one hour of direct sunlight. The electric used in most American homes however is AC. The electric from the solar panels must be converted to AC and this conversion results in the loss of about 10%. As a result you will receive about 900 watt hours (0.9 kWh) of usable AC, with a one kW system receiving one hour of direct sun. In the case of Austin which receives an average of 5.4 hours per day of direct or near direct sunlight, you can expect a 1 kW system to generate 4.86 kWh of AC electricity daily. 5.4 x .9 (90% of 1 kW)= 4.86 kWh. In our example we wish to replace 15.37 kWh/day. We therefore need a 3.16 kW system to generate an average of 15.37 kWh/day. We arrived at that by dividing 15.37 by 4.86. In the US, the current average for an installed PV system is about $10,000 pew kW of system. We multiply our 3 kW of system times 10,000 and see that our 3 kW system will be about $30,000 installed. That is a considerable amount but the good news is that there are significant tax credits and rebates to off set this cost. Also, PV panels are continuing to become more affordable as more are produced more efficiently. At http://Austin-solar-panels.com you will find reports detailing how to get tax credits and rebates as well as other FAQ's. In addition there is a solar calculator to do all these calculations. The Article Author: Visit Austin Solar Solutions to use the solar calculator or for detailed reports about Federal tax credits, local rebates and answers to FAQ's. |
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