What Solar Customers Need to Know About a Solar Panels Output

The solar power outage or wattage is an important consideration when comparing the different options of solar panels. When you hear solar installers say, “this is a 350-watt solar panel”, or if you are reading quotes from solar installers, you will most likely see numbers like 300W or 325W next to the name of the solar panels. This is about the wattage, capacity and solar power output of the solar panels.

How Much Solar Energy Do Solar Panels Produce?

If you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day, in a state like California, you can calculate the output of your solar panels like this: 5 hours x 290 watts (the output of premium solar panels) = 1,450 watts-hour, or 1.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh), Therefore, the output for all solar panels that are in your solar-powered system would produce around 500-550 kWh of solar energy per year.

All solar panels are rated by the amount of the DC (direct current) solar power that they are producing under standard test conditions. The output of solar panels is expressed in watts (W) and represents the solar panels' theoretical solar power production under ideal sunlight and temperature conditions. Most solar panels for homes that are on the market today have a solar power output ratings that range from 250 to 400 watts. With higher solar power ratings generally considered preferable to lower solar power ratings. The cost of solar panels is going to play a significant part in the cost of the solar-powered system.

What Can you Power with a Single Solar Panel?

In the previous example, the solar panel is going to produce 1.5 kWh per day, which is going to end up being around 4.5 kWh per month. This is enough solar energy to provide power for small appliances without too many issues, but if you want to cover all of the energy that is used by your home’s climate control system or large cooking appliances, you are going to need more solar panels.

Calculating Solar Panels Wattage

Solar power output is a very important metric for your home or commercial solar-powered systems. When you purchase or install solar-powered systems, the price that you pay is typically based on the total power output of the solar panels that are in the solar-powered system.

The solar panels' wattage represents the solar panel's theoretical solar power production under ideal sunlight and temperature conditions. The wattage is calculated by multiplying volts x amps where volts represent the amount of force of the electricity and amperes (amps_ refers to the aggregate amount of energy that is used). The financial savings that you derive from the solar-powered system is a result of the electric energy that it generates over time (expressed in kilowatt-hours).

Size V. Amount

The solar power output alone isn’t a complete indicator of the quality of the solar panels or their performance characteristics. Some solar panels have high solar power output due to their large physical size rather than the efficiency of a solar panel, or the solar panels being more technologically advanced.

If two different solar panels both have 15 percent of the efficiency of solar panel ratings, but one has a solar power output rating of 250 watts and the other is rated at 300 watts. It means that the 300-watt solar panel is about 20 percent larger than the 250-watt solar panel. Solar energy industry experts view the efficiency of a solar panel as being more of an indication of the performance strength of solar panels as being more of an indication of the performance strength of solar panels than solar power capacity.

A solar-powered system that has a rated capacity of 5 kWh (kilowatt-hours) could either be made up of either 20, 250-watt solar panels or 16, 300-watt solar panels. Both solar-powered systems are going to generate the same amount of solar power in the same geographical location. A 5 kW solar-powered system might produce 6,000 kWh of solar electricity in Boston, the same solar-powered system will produce 8,000 kWh every year in Los Angeles because of the amount of the sun each location gets per year.

The solar electricity that is generated by the solar-powered system is governed by its rated solar power output, but it also depends on other factors such as the efficiency of a solar panel and the temperature sensitivity, and the degree of the shading that the solar-powered system gets. The tilt and the angle of the roof where that holds the solar-powered system will also affect the output of the solar panels. It makes sense to install a solar-powered system with just as much solar power output as you can afford. That will ensure that you will maximize your savings and speed up the payback period of the solar-powered system.

Factors that Will Affect a Solar-Powered Systems Output

- Standard Test Conditions (STC). These conditions are easily recreated in a factory, and allow for consistent comparisons of products, but need to be modified to estimate output under common outdoor operating conditions.

- Testing and real temperature. Solar panel output power will decrees as module temperatures increase. A regular solar panel will heat up to almost 70-80 degrees when operating on a roof during the summertime. For the crystalline modules, a typical temperature reduction factor recommended by the CEC is 89% or 0.89.

- Dust and dirt on the surface of a solar panel. Dust and dirt on the surface of the solar panels are going to be accumulated over time. This dust and dirt will reduce the power output of the solar panels.

- Solar panel design mismatch and cable/wiring losses. The maximum power output of the total PV array is always less than the sum of the maximum output of the individual solar panels.

- Power Conversion losses from DC to AC solar power. Solar power inverters will convert DC solar power generated by the solar panels to AC solar panels. Part of the solar power will be lost in the conversion process, and there are additional losses in the wires form the rooftop solar-powered system down the solar power inverter and out to the house panel.