Cost of Solar Panels
Knowing How Much It Would Cost To Generate Your Own Electricity
The amount of a solar panel would surely be your concern when you have decided to generate your own electricity. Although costs vary depending on the type and size of the panels, the following information is provided to serve as your guide for a rough estimate of how much a solar panel could cost:
Size of the Solar Panel
To get an idea how much a solar panel could cost, you need to know the size of the panels that you’re going to be purchasing. By getting its size, you will at least have an idea of how much you will need to save or apply for a loan. The following are the steps on how to calculate the size of the panels your home might need:
Step 1: Check your electricity bills and get your average electricity usage (kWh) per year.
For example: Most of your electricity bill charges is amounting to RM100/month, your average electricity usage then will at least be 1000 kWh/month.
Step 2: Know how many hours a day the sun shines in your area.
Step 3: Determine how much (percentage) of your total household electricity would be coming from the sun.
*If you don’t have a lot of budget yet to purchase solar panels that will cover bigger area on your roof, you may start with 50% of your household utilities to be coming from the sun’s energy.
*On the other hand, if you have bigger budget to purchase solar panels that will cover a much bigger space of your roof, you may give an 80%-100% coverage in favor of solar energy.
Step 4: Use the following formula to get a rough estimate:
Where:
Array size in kW = (average kWh/yr) ÷ (365 days) ÷ (solar hrs/day) x (coverage percentage) ÷ (75% constant efficiency)
For example:
RM100/month electricity bill with an average of 1000 kWh monthly, 5-hour solar hours per day, and preferred a 75% coverage.
That gives a calculation of:
Array size in kW = (average kWh/yr) ÷ (365 days) ÷ (solar hrs/day) x (coverage percentage) ÷ (75% constant efficiency)
= (12,000 kWh/yr) ÷ (365 days) ÷ (5 kWh/day) x (75%) ÷ (75%)
= 6.58 kW Array size
*75% constant efficiency will always be included on how you compute an array size due to efficiency lost cause by various circumstances such as dust, temperature, etc.
Step 5: Research on how much a solar panel
cost in the market to compute the amount it would cost you to purchase it based on the size you have calculated.
*Above computation is an estimate cost for the solar panels only. Cost for Solar PV Installation and other costs are not yet included in the said amount.
