How much solar panel would be needed to power a large house?

Question

Can anyone estimate how much solar panel would be needed for a fairly large house and maybe the price as well

Answer 1

You're going to need to be a bit more precise to get a realistic answer. I live in a fairly large house (3,000 sq ft) and consume an average of 500 watts per hour. I have a friend in a lot smaller house who uses 1kW per hour. All depends on lifestyle and what you have plugged in and switched on. You could do your own survey by checking the meter every day for a week or two and then average it out. After that the research to estimate the cost of a solar pv installation is fairly straightforward.

Answer 2

There are a lot of factors to consider, like how much sun your area gets, how much energy your home consumes, etc.

I did a rough calculation yesterday that for my home, I would need to cover about one-fifth of my roof area with solar panels to provide most of my home energy needs.  I have a 1,200 square foot home which consumes about 3,000 kWh per year of energy, and I live in a pretty sunny area (north-central California).