What Does 5000 Watts of Solar Equal

Most people are not scientists, and sometimes talking about electricity is strange to us.  So lets uncover some simple terms in the solar power language so everyone here can become more informed.  Often, when people are getting ready to purchase a solar panel system, they are trying to figure out what size is really needed.  One of the most common solar system sizes is a 5000 watt system.

Here is a breakdown of what a 5000 watt system may be:

5000 watts = 25 – 200 watt solar panels.  If you have 25 different panels and they are all 200 watts each, the total there will be 5000 total watts.  It is that simple.

What will this 5000 watt solar panel system do for the average person?  That is the most important question.  Because up to this point, we only know how many solar panels there are, but we know nothing about the expected energy output in terms of kilo watt hours. So again, lets try to understand what this size solar system will be expected to produce:

5000 watts = the amount of electricity the system is expected to produce in ideal conditions per hour in Direct Current or DC.

Ok, now we are confused once again.  What is DC, and what still does this mean to the average homeowner?

5000 watts in DC is basically 5 kilo watt hours in DC.  But, DC is not what we purchase from the utility company.  We purchase kilo watt hours in alternative current or AC.  So, the last step here is to convert the DC into AC.  That is pretty simple, because there is almost a 20% energy loss.  So that would mean that 5kwh  DC equals about 4kwh AC.

5000 watts DC = 4000 watts AC

4000 watts AC = 4kwh

So, at the end of the equation above, a 5000 watt system as the solar engineers like to call it, is going to produce about 4 kwh AC each hour of perfect sunlight.  A very good average number to use for the sunlight hours is about 5 per day.

Summary:

A 5ooo watt solar panel system would be able to produce about 20kwh per day of the year on average.

The assumptions that are being made here are that there is no shading on the solar panels and that the panels are set to the best possible angles towards the sun.