How to Choose the Right Solar Panel for Your Home

Contents

1 How Much Power Do You Need?
2 Are You Ready for a Solar System?
3 Determine Your Solar Need
4 Know How Many Panels You’ll Need
5 What Type of Panels Do You Need?
6 Check Your State’s Net Metering Policy
7 Consider the Environment Where You Live and Work
8 You can start saving energy, money and the environment with solar panels.

Read Time:6 Minute, 28 Second

Solar energy is the cleanest, most reliable energy source available. It’s also a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and save money on your electricity bill. The key to getting started with solar power is finding the right panels for you and your home or business. In this guide, we’ll go over all of the details involved in choosing solar panels so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not they’re right for you.

How Much Power Do You Need?

Before you buy a solar panel, it’s important to understand how much power your home uses. The amount of electricity that goes into your house and the amount of electricity that comes out depends on a number of factors:

How many people live in your household?
What appliances do they use?
How much sunlight does your home get?

Are You Ready for a Solar System?

Before you buy, it’s important to consider whether or not your home is ready for a solar system. There are several factors that go into this decision, including:

Affordability. Do you have the money to invest in a solar panel system? If not, there are financing options available which can help get you started with minimal out-of-pocket expense.
Availability of space on your roof or land that isn’t shaded by trees or other structures (such as housemates). You’ll also need access to an electrical outlet where the panels will connect back into the grid; this is typically done through an inverter mounted next to their location on the wall inside your house.
Storage capacity–the amount of electricity generated by these systems needs somewhere safe and secure where it can be stored until needed later down the road when supply exceeds demand during peak hours such as hot summer afternoons when everyone has their AC running full blast!

Determine Your Solar Need

Before you buy a solar panel, it’s important to determine your solar needs. To do this, you’ll need to do some calculations and research.

How much power do I use? This is straightforward: add up all of the watt-hours used by all appliances in your home over one day (you can find this information on the back of each appliance). Then multiply that number by 30 days in a month, or 24 hours times 7 days per week. The result will be the total amount of watts consumed per month (or year).
How much power do I need? For this calculation, we’ll consider two scenarios: summertime and wintertime–because even though solar panels work year-round, they provide less electricity during winter months due to reduced sunlight hours due to shorter days and cloudier skies.*

Know How Many Panels You’ll Need

The first step to choosing the right solar panel for your home is determining how many panels you’ll need. This will depend on several factors:

The size of your home and how much energy it requires.
The amount of sunlight available, especially during winter months when there is less sun than at other times in the year.

You can calculate this yourself or use a solar panel calculator such as this one from Green Mountain Energy (AMEX: GME). Once you know how many watts per hour (W/h) each panel produces, simply multiply that number by how many hours per day it’s exposed to sunlight during optimal conditions–usually between 8 am and 4 pm–and then divide by 1000 to convert kilowatts into kilowatt-hours (kWh).

What Type of Panels Do You Need?

There are a variety of solar panel types on the market, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Here is a breakdown of what each type is:

Monocrystalline panels – These are made up of one large crystal (monocrystal) that has been cut into pieces. These panels have high efficiency rates, but they’re also more expensive than other types of solar panels because they’re harder to manufacture and require more rare materials like silver or indium.
Polycrystalline panels – These are made up of many small crystals that have been shaped into squares or rectangles before being put together into larger blocks for use in your home or business’ rooftop array system. This makes them less expensive than monocrystalline options; however, they don’t perform quite as well when it comes to converting sunlight into electricity compared with other options available today on the market (though still better than traditional grid-connected power).

Check Your State’s Net Metering Policy

Net metering is a policy that allows you to sell any excess electricity generated by your solar panels back to the grid. The amount of money you receive depends on how much electricity you use, so it’s important to know how much power your home uses in order to figure out whether net metering will be worth it for you.

To calculate the savings from net metering, first find out how much money your utility company charges per kilowatt hour (kWh). For example, if they charge $0.15/kWh and your system produces 1 kWh per day during peak hours (noon-4 p.m.), then at least one month’s worth of energy costs would be covered by selling back this extra energy–the “net” part comes from subtracting what was consumed from what was generated during those same hours; thus saving money!

Consider the Environment Where You Live and Work

You should also consider the environment where you live and work. In some states, there are incentives for installing solar panels on your property that can help offset their cost. For example, the state of California has a renewable portfolio standard requiring utility companies to source 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020; if this requirement is met through net metering policies or other means (like purchasing solar power), homeowners may be eligible for tax credits or rebates on their installation costs.

In addition to checking whether there are any state-level policies in place that might encourage homeownership with solar panels, it’s worth asking about local government initiatives as well. Many cities offer financial incentives for installing rooftop solar arrays–and sometimes even take part in community-wide initiatives like shared programs between neighbors who want to share one another’s excess power generation capabilities but don’t have enough space on their own roofs!

You can start saving energy, money and the environment with solar panels.

There are many benefits to installing solar panels at home:

Solar panels are an investment in the future. As long as you keep them maintained, they will last for decades or longer. They don’t require much maintenance either–you’ll simply need to keep an eye on them and check for any damage or leaks every so often. If something goes wrong, it’s easy enough to fix yourself; if not, they’ll still work perfectly well after years of use!
Solar panel systems also help reduce your carbon footprint by reducing your electricity bills while simultaneously producing clean energy from renewable sources like sunlight or wind power instead of burning fossil fuels like coal or natural gas (which releases greenhouse gases). This means less pollution entering our atmosphere which helps address climate change issues such as global warming caused by excess carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere resulting from human activities such as driving cars around town all day long without taking breaks between trips….

The first step to going solar is knowing your options. There are many types of solar panels and they all have different benefits and disadvantages. It’s important that you know what kind of panels work best for your situation before making any decisions about installing a solar system on your home or business property.