In the post, Power Shift: Apples and Oranges, I described auditing our power usage to arrive at an estimated average daily electricity use: 1438 Watt hours (Wh).
To estimate how many of what size solar panels we would need to satisfy this need, we turned to Backwoods Solar, one of the most trusted off-the-grid living resources in our neighborhood. I used their catalog as a text book for the estimate.
I found several different methods of computing array size in various titles in our Homestead Reference Library, but the Backwoods method seemed easiest, and I know they stake their well deserved reputation on it. Continue reading
