Using solar energy doesn’t necessarily mean disconnecting from the grid. In fact, the vast majority of home solar panel systems are grid-tied, as it’s nearly always the more practical and beneficial option. Staying connected to the grid not only ensures your lights stay on during the night and cloudy days, but also allows you to take advantage of schemes like net metering, significantly increasing the value of your solar investment. Did you know that globally, the off-grid solar market serves 420 million people each year? Being off-grid means that your home and its appliances are completely disconnected from the national grid. The first question you’ll likely ask yourself is: how many solar panels do I need to go off-grid? You’ll quickly discover that the answer is somewhat complex and entirely dependent on your home’s individual energy needs.
In this article, my goal is to guide you through the entire process of determining your solar system requirements, so that by the end, you’ll know exactly how many photovoltaic panels you need to take your home off-grid.
What is Off-Grid?
Being off-grid means not being physically connected to public utilities via wires, pipes, or cables. Therefore, off-grid homes rely entirely on their own energy sources, which are often renewable, such as solar or wind power. When a building is off the grid, it means it has no physical connection or relationship with any type of utility, and all the electricity it uses comes from the energy it generates and stores itself.
Achieving energy self-sufficiency is a key part of living off-grid, and this involves not being physically connected to energy utilities. As a result, those who choose to live off-grid and not rely on utility power must generate their own energy for heating, cooking, and communication by installing their own solar panels, wind turbines, or on-site generators.
Thanks to modern technology, living off-grid with energy self-sufficiency is relatively easy today. One of the most common power sources for those who choose to live off-grid is a solar power system, which consists of photovoltaic panels that absorb and generate energy from the sun, along with batteries to store that energy for use when there is no sunlight.
Can I Go Off-Grid with Solar Panels?
When it comes to generating your own electricity, there’s arguably no greener or more efficient technology than solar panels. In most cases, it is 100% possible to go off-grid using solar panels. However, this is only a small piece of the puzzle.
To maintain a sustainable, long-term off-grid lifestyle, you’ll need somewhere to store all the solar energy that your panels generate. Just as solar panels are the most accessible and efficient way to produce electricity, solar batteries or solar power stations are by far the best technology for storing off-grid solar energy.
So, essentially, you can indeed go off-grid using solar panels along with some form of storage system.
How many solar panels do I need to go off-grid?
The number of solar panels you need to go off-grid depends on your daily energy consumption, the average sunlight hours in your location, and the efficiency of the solar panels. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average household in the U.S. consumes approximately 900 kWh of electricity per month, which equates to around 30 kWh per day. However, many off-grid households, with a focus on energy efficiency, may use less energy.
For simplicity, let’s assume you decide to install 300-watt solar panels, and your panels receive 6 hours of sunlight per day. Each panel would generate 1.8 kWh of electricity per day. To meet the average daily electricity consumption of 29.33 kWh for your home, you would need 17 solar panels. Of course, this is just an example. To find out how many solar panels you would need to power your off-grid system, please schedule a consultation with Sungold’s customer support.
To clearly explain how many solar panels are needed for an off-grid system, this article will provide a detailed overview.
The number of solar panels required for an off-grid system depends solely on the following factors:
- The amount of electricity you use
- The available roof space
- The amount of direct sunlight you receive daily
- The type of solar panels you choose
A typical off-grid home generally requires around 7 kilowatts (or 7,000 watts) of power to fully rely on its own energy production. Solar panels come in various forms, shapes, and sizes. The two main factors determining how many solar panels you need for off-grid living depend on your energy needs and the performance output of each panel.
Panel performance is rated under Standard Test Conditions (STC), which are defined as an irradiance of 1,000 W/m², an AM 1.5 solar spectrum, and a module temperature of 25°C. Generally, the larger the panel, the higher its performance.
If your energy requirements match the above average (7 kilowatts) and you are using 200-watt solar panels, you would need roughly 35 panels to take your home off-grid. Alternatively, if you opt for 350-watt solar panels, you would need 20 panels.
To give you an idea of how much space 35 solar panels would take up, you would need to calculate the total square footage. In the U.S., the average residential roof size is around 1,700 square feet. 35 solar panels would occupy approximately 389 square feet of your roof space, leaving enough room in case you want to add any additional panels to your system in the future.
How to Calculate How Many Solar Panels You Need
Step 1 – Calculate Your Energy Usage
Most energy bills display the kilowatt hours (kWh) used, usually at the bottom of the statement, multiplied by the cost of electricity.
Step 2 – Calculate the Amount of Sunlight Your Location Receives
Peak sunlight hours are the hours when the sun produces an average of 1000 watts per square metre. In summary, peak sunlight hours represent the period during which the sun is at its most powerful, allowing solar panels to operate at maximum productivity.
Step 3 – Calculate the Size of the Solar System You Need for Off-Grid Living
First, you need to calculate the average number of peak sunlight hours in a month. Simply multiply the daily peak sunlight hours by 30.
Step 4 – Calculate How Many Solar Panels You Need to Go Off-Grid
The first thing you need to do is convert the solar system size from kilowatts to watts by multiplying the system size by 1000. To determine how many solar panels you need, you now need to decide how many watts each solar panel will generate.
Final Thoughts
I hope you now have a clear understanding of the entire process involved in determining the number of solar panels needed for an off-grid system. Ultimately, factors such as your energy consumption, the available roof space, the amount of direct sunlight received each day, and the type of solar panels you choose all play a role in deciding how many panels you will need.
If you’re planning a shorter off-grid camping trip, we recommend trying smaller solar panels along with energy storage to keep you powered up throughout your adventure.
