What factors impact how much electricity is produced by solar panels?

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We appreciate that when considering whether or not you’re going to purchase solar panels for your home, one of the key bits of information you’ll be interested in is how much energy solar panels produce in the average day?


What are the key factors?

Well, when you break that question down, there are actually several factors to consider.

The first factor is that of the size of the solar panel system that you choose to install at your home. The larger the system, the more electricity it will produce.

A good solar supplier will assess your energy needs and recommend the ideal number of solar panels for your home, ensuring the system produces enough energy per day to suit you.

The second factor is the position of the panels, both in the direction the roof is facing and the pitch of the roof. For the ideal performance of solar panels, you should look at installing on a south-facing roof at an angle of 35 degrees.

Saying that however, there are a range of positions in which solar panels can still be effective, even on flat roof properties, where sloping mechanisms can allow for the perfect angle to catch the sun’s rays.

Your supplier should always look to provide a roof position where the solar panels are free from shade throughout the day, ensuring your panels can absorb enough sunlight to produce the levels of electricity you are expecting. They can even use power optimisers or microinverters to boost the generation of shaded panels by up to 20%

Another factor is considering the time of year. During the summer months, there is obviously more sunlight to absorb, with days much longer and skies clearer on the whole. The temperature does not matter, as solar panels work by processing light and not heat, so do not worry about the cold during the winter months, just be aware of seasonal differences.

How much electricity does this equate to annually?

One key point to make is that to really make the most of your solar panels’ energy generation, you’re going to need a solar battery to store that energy and make use of it when needed, rather than simply seeing the energy passed back to the Grid.

If you have your solar battery and a 4kWp system in place, which is ideal for a medium to large family home, then you can expect an output in the range of:

  • Using the oven for 1,500 hours, or

  • 97,000 hours of power for the fridge, or

  • Running the washing machine for 4,850 hours

In financial terms, that can equate to anywhere between £400 and £800 of your annual energy bills, which is obviously a sizable chunk of money and one you can count on year-on-year if you have solar panels and a solar battery in place at your home.

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