Summer is probably the most enjoyable of all seasons. When one thinks of summer, scenes involving beaches, vacations, and outings come to mind. Unfortunately, when summer is upon us, we also experience terrible spikes in temperature and humidity. To augment this, we usually let our air conditioning work double time. This also means that it chugs a bit more of the usual electricity requirements. One method to resolve this overdrive in the system is using solar air conditioning.
Nowadays, there are different methods to mitigate the cost of rising electricity requirements during summer (or for any season for that matter).
Cost
Enjoying the comforts of having an air conditioner stabilize the temperatures in your house can be costly. The amount usually depends on which type of air conditioner you are using and the electricity rates in your state.
To know the power consumption of a unit for solar air conditioning, just look for the panel attached to your air conditioning. The power consumption is expressed in terms of Watts (W); as an example, a typical window-type unit consumes around 900 watts. Let’s say, you let the same air conditioner run for 8 hours (let’s say at night). So, applying a bit of math, that’s 900 W multiplied by 8 hours, that’s 7200 watt-hours. Since utilities are billed in terms of kWh (or kilowatt-hour), we have to divide it further by 1000. That means the energy usage of the air conditioning unit is at 7.2 kWh for an 8-hour usage. In California, the electricity rate is at $0.20 per kWh, so 7.2 kWh multiplied by $0.20 will give you $1.44.
Number of Solar Panels Needed
The daily cost in terms of regular electricity sources may not look much, but if you’re the type who doesn’t want to pay for electricity at all in the future, then harnessing solar power is the way to go.
To determine the number of solar panels needed, you can compute by getting your additional annual kWh needs, that is, using the 7.2 kWh in our example and multiplying it by 365. That will give you around 2,628. Then you divide it further by 1.2. The “1.2” is constant and is called the production ratio. Each state’s production ratio varies depending on the amount of sunlight it receives. Hence, 2,628 divided by 1.2 is 2,190.
Next, you divide this number by the number of watts/panel output to get the number of panels you need. 2,190 divided by 300 (panel outputs, depending on size, may vary between 250-365 watts). That’ll give you 7.3, or roughly 8 panels.
The only thing left to do now is to install the solar panels. You can have Del Sol Energy help you with your energy requirements for a hassle-free, seamless transition to solar energy.
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