That means if you have one hour of full sunlight hit your panels, it will generate 3.8kw of power.
I think you mean kWh of energy, not kW of power, since you multiplied it by time.
Comment on Solar Panel Questions
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Looks like the model name is the wattage. Your panels are wach making 275w. With 14 of them, the max power they will generate is 3850w, or 3.8Kw.
That means if you have one gour of full sunlight hit your panels, it will generate 3.8kw of power. If you go to this site it will estimate how many sunlight hours your roof will get per year. Multiple the sunliht hours by 3.8Kw to find your total possible power generation per year.
To find out how much you’ll save, you need to know how much a Kwh costs from your local power company, likely between $0.10-$0.30/kwh.
So just with made up totals, if you get 1000hrs of sunlight/yr, you will generate 3,895kwh. At $0.10/kwh, you’ll save $389.5/yr.
CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Lizardking13@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Thank you! This is very comprehensive. I have a place to start now.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Glad to help. I’ve been investigating my own solar install, so have been digging into the specifics a lot.
Note that the above are the “best case” numbers. Panels can put out less power for lots of reasons. They tend to lose a little bit of efficiency when they get older. Think 1%/year, but that’s just a rule of thumb. Being dirty can affect them, cloud cover, angle and position, and hilariously counterintuitively, if they get too much sun. Solar panels get less efficient the hotter they are, so an especially sunny day will lower the power output.
Leads to some complex math to optimize, but honestly its power that just hits your house for free. That’s a fine thing in any circumstance.