How Much Power Should A 5kw Solar System Produce

One of the biggest misconceptions people have when sizing up a solar system is to think that a 5kw solar system will produce 5kw of power at any one time.

How much power should a 5kw solar system produce.

To figure out how many kilowatt hours kwh your solar panel system puts out per year you need to multiply the size of your system in kw dc times the 8 derate factor times. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way. The power output of a 5kw solar system is a measure of how big your system generation is not how much energy it will generate.

A 6 000 watt 6kw solar system produces enough energy to cover the monthly electric bill of almost half of american households. The power generated by your solar system will vary depending on the direction of your roof your geographical location and any impediments to sun rays such as trees or nearby tall buildings. Figures are only to be taken as rough estimates. If your system capacity is 1 5kw on a clear sunny cool day you should be able to determine how much electricity your system will produce simply by multiplying 1 5kw by the number of peak sun hours you get on average in your area.

As of july 2020 the average cost of solar in the u s. For instance if the surface area is 1 500 square meters and the rating of the panel is 250 watts you would divide 250 by 1 500 and then multiply by 100 to find the percentage for this example the solar panel in question would have an efficiency rating of 16 67 250 1500 x 100 16 67. How much energy does a solar panel produce. Similar to the case of a car engine where the engine size gives indicates you how powerful it is but doesn t specifies how much fuel it will utilize even though the two are interrelated.

On average your solar system is going to lose some energy due to wiring power inverter efficiency so you actually end up using 80 of your solar system s capacity. That means that the total 5kw solar system cost would be 10 767 after the 26 federal itc discount not factoring in any additional state rebates or incentives. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. The reality is a 5kw system will output a bit less than that with peak output on a good day being somewhere between 4kw and 4 7kw during the middle of the day and a less in the.

An optimally tilted 85 efficient north facing 5kw solar system in sydney for example would produce about 3 5 psh x 5kw x 85 15kwh of power on a day in the peak of winter whereas in the summer output from the same 5kw solar system would be around 6 2 psh x 5kw x 85 26kwh.