| While Solar Energy may be one of the most cost-effective, cleanest, most-affordable forms of Renewable Energy available today; used worldwide for hundreds, if not thousands, of applications both large and small. But, in order to make sure that the Solar System that you purchase and install will deliver maximum performance and return on investment, it is important that your system, and its components be sized properly to meet your needs, location, application and budget.
If your Solar System is too small, it may not make enough of impact on your bills and electric usage to properly pay for itself. Additionally, if your solar system is too large (unless intentionally so for net-metering purposes) you will overpay, which can dramatically increase your payback period, and limit the cost-effectiveness which drew you to the Solar System in the first place. Neither of us wants either of these two possibilities to come true for you, so we offer our customers, free of charge, a complete range of Solar Energy Sizing guides, perfectly designed to help you choose the right solar system for you, or to help your solar professional size a system according to your needs and budget more easily.
There are many important factors that go into properly sizing a solar system for your home, office, cabin, farm, or other location. These factors include:
- Solar Resources available at your location
- Your average daily power usage (for solar electric systems)
- Your peak power usage (for solar electric systems)
- Your daily domestic hot water usage (for solar hot water systems)
- Your home square footage and insulation levels (for solar hot water radient heat)
- Your intended use for your solar energy system
- Whether you intend to be Grid-Tied or Off-Grid (for solar electric systems)
DIY Solar Guide has a number of great Do-It-Yourself Solar Energy System Sizing Guides for our customers to use to make sure that they are getting the proper solar system before they make their purchase. Please select a guide below to begin using it.
- DIY Solar Site Survey
This great resource allows customers and site visitors alike to determine the solar resources available not only in their geographic area, but at their specific site as well. This guide takes into account such things as surrounding trees and buildings, which are critical to properly placing your solar system.
- DIY Solar Hot Water Sizing Guide
This guide is an all-in-one resource that allows our customers the chance to determine how many solar hot water collectors they will need for any application that they have. This guide can be used to size solar hot water systems for domestic hot water heating, radiant floor heating, commercial, industrial, and apartment hot water heating. A great source of information.
- DIY Solar PV Sizing Guide
This guide is the perfect resource for determining how much energy your home or office consumes on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This information can be used to determine how large of a solar system you would need to provide power for your current usage levels, or just to help your family lower your power usage by showing you where your largest electrical costs are.
- DIY Wiring Guide
Use this resource to determine which gauge wire you should use for your electrical project. This chart accounts for power levels and distance travelled to perfectly size the wire for any solar energy system. A handy resource for the Do-It-Yourself or contract electrician to have with them at all times.
- DIY Solar Battery Sizing Guide
Use this resource to determine how many batteries, and what size batteries you need to complete your next solar energy project.
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