This solar panel output calculator helps you estimate the real daily energy, a.k.a. solar power as a function of time, in kWh or Wh, that your solar panel can produce, taking into account its rated power and solar energy available at your place.
This calculator may come in handy when you buy solar panel(s) for your RV vehicle, boat, camper or home solar system, and you want to get a real estimate for the production capability of your solar panel(s).
Warning: this calculator only takes into account only solar panel losses due to temperature, dirt, etc. It does NOT take into account, for example, any losses introduced by the rest part of your solar panel system.
Below you can find some typical losses your solar system might incur due to the components as follows:
- Charge controller losses: 20% for PWM charge controllers( average efficiency 80%), 8% for MPPT charge controllers (average efficiency 92%)
- Total cable losses = 3-5%
- Battery losses = 20%
- Inverter losses = 8%
If you are looking for a calculator taking into account the above losses, you can use our free Off-grid solar power system calculator
Other useful solar power calculators and tools:
- Solar battery calculator
- Solar PWM charge controller calculator
- Solar DC Wire Sizing Calculator
- Step by step guide for calculating overcurrent protection (fuses, breakers, combiner boxes, junction boxes and etc.) of the solar power system
How to use Solar Panel Output Calculator?
Actually, you have at your disposal two solar calculators:
– For the Forward task: estimate expected solar panel energy daily energy output in KWh (or Wh) based on your solar panel(s).
– For the Reverse task: estimate the rated power of solar panel(s) taking into account your expected daily energy needs in KWh (or Wh)
An useful reminder: 1kW = 1,000W and 1kWh = 1,000 Wh
For the Forward task: Just enter the solar rated power and average peak sun hours (PSH) at your location, then click on the “Update” button to get the daily energy your solar panel(s) can produce.
For the Reverse task: Just enter your presupposed daily consumption, average peak sun hours (PSH) at your location, then click on the “Update” button to get the rated solar power you need.
How to find peak sun hours (PSH) at your location?
Here is how you can find the daily value of the Peak Sun Hours (PSH) for your location, depending in which part of the world you reside:
1) For the USA – click on the following link
http://maps.nrel.gov/pvdaq ,
then expand the “Solar Resources” folder on the left, and tick the “Avg. Annual Tilt at Lat” checkbox. You are going to see a map of the USA containing plots of the PSH. If you click on the little black arrow next to the checkbox, you can expand the legend and see the PSH value for your location after properly zooming the map to find your location.
2) For Europe – click on the following link
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/countries/europe/EU-Glob_opta_publications.png
Warning: If you have the total of global irradiation in kWh/m2 for a given location, you have to divide such value by 365 to get the daily value of PSH
3) For Australia and New Zealand – click on the following link:
https://solarpanelsvenue.com/out/australia_sunshine_hours.JPG
4) For areas outside the USA, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand – find the PSH daily value for your country from the World map of direct normal irradiance. “Normal irradiance” means that those values are valid for solar panel positioned perpendicularly to the sunbeams. Therefore, the tilt of your solar panel is equal to the latitude of your location.
You may also like:
How to use solar panels of different wattage in your solar power system
The most commonly used solar panels
The definitive guide to solar batteries
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