A lot of people are becoming interested in converting to renewable energy with the intention of saving both the environment and their pockets. Converting to solar energy is certainly a very good option to choose, as the benefits are many. Take action, and you will see why it is worth the investment.
People who have installed solar panel systems have significantly reduced or eliminated electricity bills, which in itself satisfies most people after they have installed it. Also, people are pleased to know that over produced energy from a solar power system can be sold to the utility company, thereby negating their utility bills.
From the point of view to help the environment, solar panels contribute to reduce fossil fuel emission, so reducing the damage to the environment. You will check that the benefits are many. But maybe, you prefer first, take a look at the costs behind this worthwhile investment.
The main factor to note is that the cost of your solar panel system will depend on what it will be supporting. Most houses are fully equipped with televisions, washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, computer, light bulbs and water heaters. Sure you could run through the painful task of calculating the cumulative wattage for all of them over a day.
That exercise would certainly tell you which appliances consume the most electricity. But, a better method would be to consult your utility bill. You bill should highlight how many kilowatts you used for the number of days in the billing period. Just divide the total kilowatt hours by the number of days to arrive at your average daily consumption.
The next step is to calculate how many hours of sunlight your roof receives daily. To simplify the calculation, we can assume that most places receive about 5 hours of sunlight a day. It is better to take the worst situation. Then let us look at an example. If you spend 300KWh monthly, then your average monthly consumption will be 10 KWh. As a starting point, a 1KW rooftop system can generate about 5 KWh per day. Remember 1KW multiplied for 5 hours of sunlight a day is 5KWh. Then a 2KW system will be enough to generate 10 KWh per day.
How much does it cost? Well, a 2 kW system would cost in the region of $18,000 to $20,000. As the wattage increases, so does the price. A 4 kW system would cost between $35,000 and $45,000. But, the excellent news is that once installed, solar panel systems are virtually cost and maintenance free. Even more excellent news is that the installed cost of solar panels is expected to continue to drop as thin film panels from companies like Nanosolar and AVA Solar become available to the residential market.
A lot of savings can be derived if you buy a do it yourself home solar panel system, but whatever route you take, you are bound to reap worthwhile rewards.
The author is an electrical engineer that has been working more than ten years in the green field applications. He has created some diy guides to build solar panels. And wrote a lot of articles abouthome solar panels.

![[Google]]( http://7figureinc.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)

