Do It Yourself Energy Audit
Do It Yourself Energy Audit
A few simple task and you can determine your home energy usage. The very first step to take is reviewing your monthly energy bill over the past year. The utility company measures your energy usage using kilowatts. The more electricity your home consumes, the higher the kilowatts reading that will be appearing on your electric bill. From these readings you will know how much energy you need to make. Let’s get started, it has never been easier.
Your next step is to divide your monthly average kilowatt use by 30 to get your daily average use.
Most solar companies tell you to divide this number by the average sun hours per day and they usually give you a set of number of 5-6 hours. Earth Care’s Peel and Stick Solar Panels provide energy from daylight to dark, therefore we are making some energy prior and after these peek sun hours they speak about.
Earth Care’s peel and stick works on light, and although the sun does enhance the energy production, the product works on cloudy days, rainy days, snow days, in the woods and in some cases under buildings that have opened light from the walls or sky lights from the roof. So we ask folks to select the number 9 hours to divide by. another factor about our product is the amount of amps being produced from the peel and stick product. Normal glass type panels , mono and crystalline, produce and advertise 3.5 amps. In some cases where they have huge panels and mix with our type amorphous panels they claim more amps, but again not normally for residential. Our panels produce 5.7 amps , and we are only using 19.5 X 79.5 inch strips. Think of what that 100 watt panel can do as you add more panels.
Next multiply this number by 1.15 just to be sure you make up for any unforeseen inconsistencies in effectiveness. This will give you your total in Kilowatts. Lastly, to convert this to watts so that you can better understand what size solar system is needed, just multiply by 1000.
Here is a good example for you to follow.
Let’s say the average monthly kilowatt reading on your electric bill was 300 kwh. Divide 300 by 30 (days) = 10 kilowatt hours per day. If you have an average of 6 hrs of full sunlight per day, you would then divide 10 by 6 (hrs of sun per day) = 1.67. Then multiply by 1.5 =2.5 And finally multiply by 1000 to convert to watts.
2.5 x 1000 = 2500 watts
of power is needed per hour to meets
all of your energy requirements.
You last step to your audit is knowing how much roof space is needed to place your solar panels on. This basic formula you will need to learn and keep for future reference is an average solar panel will produce 1 kw per hour for every 100 square feet of roof area.
Therefore, since we determined that you need to produce 2.5 kw for every hour of full sun (in our energy audit example above), you will need 2.5= 250 square feet of dedicated space and therefore 250 square feet of solar panels. For this system utilizing The Earth Care Solar Peel and Stick Systems 19.5 X 79.5 inches (10 square feet) You simply divide 10 feet into 250 square feet of roof space and you have the number of solar strips to complete the job 25.
Please take note: Because our panels produce more amps that most competitors we have found from field experience you are able to deduct a few panels and batteries which can be determined as you install in the field. After all You Are DOING THIS YOURSELF.
