Below are cost estimates based on home size.
Average kwh per square foot solar panel.
The average sized solar panel takes up an area of 17 6 square feet and produces 265 watts under direct sunlight.
Ft so most homeowners will have more than enough room for solar panels.
In order to find a range for number of solar panels we compared arizona and maine s solar panel production ratios 1 31 and 1 61 the highest and lowest in the u s.
Sizing a solar panel system to your home s electric usage can be done by taking look at your energy bills over a year.
Said differently the average american household consumes just under 11 000 kwh per year.
However most installers estimate solar costs by the amount of energy needed at 2 53 to 3 15 per watt before any tax credits or incentives.
That translates to just over 15 watts per square foot.
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.
How many solar panels are needed to power an average house.
And the average solar power system needed is a 5 kilowatt system.
The amount of energy your home uses over a certain timeframe say a month is measured in kilowatt hours kwh.
The amount of energy that solar panels can absorb and then produce is measured in kilowatts kw.
The cost of solar panels to power your house are 4 to 10 per square foot.
A typical american home will need 14 36 solar panels to cover their power bill and at least 227 square feet of rooftop space to accommodate the solar panels.
You can use the table of solar power production per kw for each state above to do the same math for your state.
On average a normal household will use around 37 kwh per day.
However keep in mind that there are many factors at play here so this is really only a rough estimate.
The national average cost of a solar panel is around 2 98 watt.
This size of solar panel layout will only take about 350 400 sq.
So if you have solar panels that each produce 1 kwh of power per day you would need a full 37 solar panels to fully power your home.