How Many Solar Panels You Need in Victoria?
I will try to stay as concise and simple as I can to help you calculate the total number of solar panels you need for your home. In this blog, we’ll go through some of the factors that even we consider while guiding our customers when they inquire for a solar panel installation and we’ll see how many solar panels You need in Victoria.
Firstly, are you aware of all the rebates and incentive programs the government is offering for solar installation? The federal and state governments of Victoria are urging people to get solar PV systems installed at their homes. This initiative is to make the environment sustainable, and healthy and go alternate power sources. And they are taking it too seriously, offering rebates, incentives and even interest free loans to the people. Not just Federal or state governments are doing this, many private companies are offering interest-free loans in this regard. This has made solar panels installation easier. You have to pay way less out of the pocket.
If you are eligible for these incentives and want to turn your rooftop into a powerhouse, you may be stuck with some confusion and lot of unanswered questions. Obviously, you are going to make an investment and for sure you need a better ROI (return on investment). In this blog, we’ll share super simple steps on how many solar panels you need in Victoria.
Guide Outline
Let’s calculate how many solar panels you need in Victoria?
Once you evaluate if your property is eligible for any state or federal government rebate, the real question is how many solar panels you need for your home? Well, I’ll share some questions that will lead us to the number of panels you need for your home. For example, what is your daily average usage, how much electricity you actually need from your solar PV system, what would be the size (watt) of each solar panel, what is the production ratio in your region?
What is your daily average usage (daily electricity consumption)?
It all starts from this point. You better have to calculate your average daily electricity consumption first.
Take a look at your electricity bill
Now the easy way is, it is mentioned on your electricity bill. Take a look at the home peak and off peak electricity consumption section on your electricity bill.
Calculate manually
If you want to do the calculations manually, note down the following:
- Top electricity consuming household items (e.g. air conditioner, fridge/freezer, Tv)
- What time you consume them most
- Electric items running most of the time
Let’s take a look at the electricity calculation formula:
Power Rating = 100 watts = 0.1 kW
Hours of Use per Day = 5 hours
Daily Energy Usage = Power Rating (kW) * Hours of Use per Day
Below table shows daily energy usage for some of the household electric items:
| Appliance | Power Rating (W) | Hours of Use per Day | Daily Energy Usage (kWh) |
| Air conditioner | 1500 | 8 | 12 |
| TV | 100 | 5 | 0.5 |
| Ceiling fan | 11 | 8 | 0.088 |
| Fridge/freezer | 140 | 10 | 1.4 |
| 13.988 |
You can also avail a power consumption calculating meter, like Powerpal, this will allow you to accurately calculate the electricity consumption for the items you noted above.
How much solar energy you actually need?
This is pretty much dependent on previous question. Once you are done calculating your electricity household average consumption, you will decide what amount of solar energy you actually want to utilize to cope with your electric bills or if you want to sell some of the power to the grid as well.
What is the solar energy production ratio in Victoria?
In Victoria, Australia, 1kW solar system produces about (3kWh x 1kW = 3kWh of power).
Solar panel wattage
It is basically the current that your solar panel will generate under ideal conditions. At this point if you don’t have any specific wattage in mind, let’s assume you opt for a 370W solar plate/panel as the ratings are mentioned in the image below.
Final Calculation: Number of panels you need
After all these calculations, you could easily find out how many solar panels you need in Victoria. Considering the above calculations/findings, let’s say your daily average usage (electricity consumption) is 13.988kWh (as per the above table).
To calculate the number of solar panels you’ll need, you can divide your daily average current usage (14 kWh) by the daily energy production of a single panel (Let’s assume an average of 4 hours of sunlight per day: 370W/1000 x 4hours = 1.48kWh) and then adjust for system efficiency:
Number of panels = (Daily current usage / Daily panel production) / System efficiency
Number of panels = (14 kWh / 1.48 kWh) / 0.8
Number of panels ≈ 11.8
Since you can’t have a fraction of a panel, you would need to round up to the nearest whole number. Therefore, based on the calculations, you would need approximately 12 of the 370W solar panels to meet your daily average current usage in Victoria, Australia.
Still need help? Comment now
We have provided all the essential details. With this information, you can easily calculate the number of solar panels you need for your property. If you still have any questions regarding your solar installation plan, please feel free to post them in the comments. Our experts will be sure to assist you.
