When it comes to buying a solar system, one of the biggest questions is size. Sometimes this will be essentially decided for you if you don’t have kind of a more extensive roof in your home.
It can be a tricky question for those who have the luck to have an essentially limited roof space.
If you consider how big your panel shod go, obviously more produced energy comes with the most extensive system. Still, it doesn’t mean that it will cause lots of savings.
This is mainly because it’s the cost you get to purchase a more extensive system at the first price.
This is the hidden secret in the industry that most solar panels are oversized.
You will see that many installers oversize the system by 30% or 33%, so if you have a 3kW Inverter, your size of the solar panel will be 6.5 kW.
Inverter size = 5kW Solar panel size = 5kWX1.3 = 6.5kW
This is so common because the panels put out as much power as what they’re rated for.
While they may put out 350 watts under each ideal circumstance, the sun isn’t the optimal angle.
Shady or cloudy climate and as a result of this 350-watt panel not only put out 250watts so by oversizing the system, it’s still using your inverter to its maximum efficiency of five kilowatts.
Even though all of your panels might not be operating at that maximum efficiency, this is also helpful in places that limit how big an inverter you’re allowed to connect to the actual grid.
Choosing your solar panel system size will depend on the reason why you want the solar system. Following are several factors you want to focus on when you determine the size of your solar panel.
- Availability of your roof
- Financial capability
- What kind of grant do you have access to.
- Payback period
In my previous topic, I explained to you how to save your money using solar panels. I explained how to do the calculations and determine how much money you can keep in that article.
I recommend doing this calculation when you are choosing the size of the solar panel too. For example, do you calculate for several sizes of the solar panels, do it for 5kW panels and 3kW panels.
So when you save 500 dollars of annual protection from your solar system, and the initial system cost is 5000 dollars, this might not be a good investment for you because you need to wait ten years to cover up your initial cost to get profit.
Even by using calculation and the ideas I give above, you can select the size of your solar panel.
I’m highly recommended to hire a professional to inspect your house and determine the size of the solar system you need. This includes lots of technical things to assess to find the most suitable design that is profitable for you.