i used 734 killowatts of power last month, any idea on how many solar panels i would need. What im looking for is to somehow hook up my central air to solar panels.
I had a system installed last year and am very happy with it so far. When I was getting quotes from companies we used a 3 year usage history that I was able to get from my utility. I live in an area that allows me to sell back my excess or let my meter run backwards, which really helps reduce costs. The amount of energy you use and can produce will vary during the year. I had monthly usage under 800 kwh and months over 2000 kwh. I have become more aware of my usage and have made adjustments to appliances and habits to cut my usage down. I installed a 3.74 kw dc system. On average in the summer I generate 35 kwh per day and in the winter I averagae around 2 kwh per day, but I've seen days as low as 2kwh. I don't see the benefit to hooking up a system to specifice appliances for 2 reasons. Your a/c doesn't run non stop, so the energy you produce when the system cycles off is lost. You only produce electricity when the sun is shining on the panels. If you have a cloudy day or it is hot after the sun goes down, you will need to still use household energy. My system doesn't zero out my bill, but it reduces it by about 75% in the summer and at least 50% in the winter. My bills were over $200 many months, my highest summer bill was $20 and highest winter bill was $35. My system cost $26K (less than my pool or hardwood floors), I got a $0K rebate from my utility and a $2K federal tax credit. The fed. tax credit has increased this year to 30% of the total installed price. I should break even in 6-7 years and save well over $50K over the life of the panels.
Ideally, you should not be trying to run individual appliances off of a solar panel. What you should be doing is selling the power harvested from these panels back to the power company as a savings from your power bill. Here in southern California I have heard of people actually receiving monthly checks from the power companies.
Good answer above me. One other tip, look at your full year's usage. Last month, if it was cold, you probably didn't have your air conditioner on. Our house uses 500-600 kWh a month average, but we have no air conditioner. To generate all of this requires a 3 kW array in our part of California. That's only to give you an idea of what it takes - what you need will be based on how much sun your area gets, and what percentage of power you want to get from the array. If you pay tiered electric rates, it may make sense to displace only part of your electricity with solar. Or it may not make financial sense at all, if you have cheap electricity where you live. To get the best assessment of what kind of system would be appropriate, try to get one or two no-obligation quotes from local companies. You can always turn down the bids, but at least you will have learned what's involved and the approximate cost. If you want to see what we did with our house, please contact me through the email in my profile.
LOL!! There is a lot more to this than you might imagine. This is a very rough approximation but look at the attached and column labeled 6.3KW. Look down that column and you see where it says Est. First Year KWH Generated ,025. So if we were to assume that each month it will produce ,025/2 kwh. (not true for January but I am trying to keep this simple. The installed price without any rebates is $44,050. ;-) Sorry! You will find some a little cheaper... some a little more expensive but none are a LOT cheaper than this. (this price does not even include energy storage, so the sun goes down and you will stop producing electricity). This is why, when people start looking at this sort of thing, they always do what they can to conserve electricity first. It is always much cheaper to conserve, then worry about alternate energy.
