How to size your solar system, simple method: 1. Sizing a solar system depends on your consumption in kWH (Kilo Watt-Hours), preferably over a period of 1 year, so you would need your meter reading in kWH measured over a yearly period. For example, if your first meter reading is January 1st, 2020, then your second meter reading should be on December 31st, 2020, which would cover a full yearly cycle. Then you calculate the kWH over that yearly period. 2. The second important piece of information is the amount of solar hours per day, on average, this is typically hard to calculate accurately, for example, in Sacramento, California, this number is about 5.7 Hours per day on average. This is not the amount of sun-light per day, but the equivalent of peak solar exposure over a daily period on average per year !. You may get this value here: https://www.karrittech.net/tools 3. Then you need to estimate your DC/AC ratio. On Ground Mount arrays, use a ratio close to 1.25 On R...
How to size your solar system, simple method:
1. Sizing a solar system depends on your consumption in kWH (Kilo Watt-Hours), preferably over a period of 1 year, so you would need your meter reading in kWH measured over a yearly period. For example, if your first meter reading is January 1st, 2020, then your second meter reading should be on December 31st, 2020, which would cover a full yearly cycle. Then you calculate the kWH over that yearly period.
2. The second important piece of information is the amount of solar hours per day, on average, this is typically hard to calculate accurately, for example, in Sacramento, California, this number is about 5.7 Hours per day on average. This is not the amount of sun-light per day, but the equivalent of peak solar exposure over a daily period on average per year !. You may get this value here: https://www.karrittech.net/tools
3. Then you need to estimate your DC/AC ratio.
On Ground Mount arrays, use a ratio close to 1.25
On Roof Mount, use a ratio close to 1.32
On Complex Roofs, use a ratio close to 1.4
4. Then the calculation, to make this easier, I've attached an excel sheet, please download it to edit the values. The results are in red, the two values that you want are: Your total inverter capacity in kW AC, and your system size in kW DC. These two values will sum-up your solar system size (kW AC is the total inverter capacity and kW DC is your total solar module capacity).
Click on this LINK to download the excel sheet !