Do Solar Panels Produce Enough Electricity for Your Home?

One of the first questions people ask when they’re considering installing solar panels for home use  is whether a solar pv system will produce enough energy for their electrical needs. The question comes up especially often here in the UK, with its reputation for cloudy winters and short days. There’s no single answer to the question, of course. It depends on the size of the solar panels you install, the configuration you choose and the location and angle of your home.

In general, though, the typical home solar panels installation will probably not supply all the electricity you use in your home. For most people, the most logical solar system is a grid-tied solar pv system, which generates electricity for immediate use. The typical grid-tied system doesn’t include a storage battery, so your solar panels will only be supplying electricity for your use during the day. At night and during periods of extended cloudiness, you’ll still be able to pull power from your power supplier.

This arrangement gives you the best of both words – during the day, you’ll get free electricity from your solar panels, which cuts your energy bill considerably. If you opt in to the UK’s feed in tariff scheme, you’ll even be paid for every unit of electricity your solar pv system produces. That amounts to double savings – you don’t pay for your electricity. Instead, you get paid for producing it.

At the same time, you avoid the inconvenience of uneven electrical production. Because solar panels depend upon the sun to generate electricity, they naturally produce more electricity at different times of the day and different times of the year. If you choose a grid-tied solar pv system, you’ll never notice the inconsistency of electricity production. Your system will be set up to draw power first from your solar panels, and then, if you require additional energy, from your chosen power supplier.

During the day, your solar panels are likely to produce more energy than you actually use. In an off-grid system, that additional electricity would be stored in a battery for you to draw on when there’s no sunlight. With a grid-tied system, that additional energy will be fed from your solar panels into the electrical grid.

Because the UK is aiming to increase its domestic use of renewable energy, the government has committed to paying property owners for every unit of electricity they produce through solar panels and other green energy systems. For more information about solar panels and how you can benefit from the feed in tariff scheme, contact a local solar installation company and ask for s consultation.