Looking to find electricians in your area? While there are many factors involved in determining how many solar panels to use to power your home, there is a basic formula. Gregg Garrison, general manager of Northeast Solar in Hatfield, MA, suggested some guidelines for the average homeowner regarding the number of panels to power both electrical and hot water needs.How many solar panels for an average household?Garrison said that the average home is approximately 1,500 square feet and has electrical costs of about $100 per month.  Garrison said that such a house generally needs about 16 panels to completely cover electrical power needs. If you are looking to heat water for the average family of four, two solar thermal panels would be needed, Garrison said. “The average hot water consumption is off-set by about 70 percent.”What’s the difference between photovoltaic panels and solar thermal panels?The cells in photovoltaic panels generate electrical power by converting solar radiation (sunlight) into an electrical current.

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of a variety of materials that include several types of silicon, arsenic and selenium.Solar thermal panels are a closed system of tubes that contain a solution similar to antifreeze. Solar thermal panels collect solar heat and transfer it to hot water tanks. Garrison said that electrical hot water tanks work the best for solar hot water use.  /article/how-many-solar-panels-does-it-take-to-poWhat affects the number of solar panels you will need to power your house?Depending on what direction your house is situated – north/south or east/west, you will have more or less sun available to you for use as power. The other primary factor is how much shade your home receives.Garrison said that it is best to contact a business such as his to do an assessment of your home. For example, Northeast Solar uses technology such as a Solar Pathfinder to measure how much sun your home would receive in a year, which in turn reveals how much power you could generate. They also use a Solmetric Sun-Eye to measure shade and solar access.

“Once we have gathered all the information, we download it into a program that gives us a more accurate measure of electrical savings and output,” said Garrison.  window ac unit cleanHow does the number of panels effect “payback?”ac motor control boardIn general, for the average home (and 16 panels), it takes about six to eight years to payback the cost of installation, according to Garrison. circuit board on ac unitIn addition, some power companies allow you to contract to sell off excess power to be fed back into the general grid, saving you even more money over time.The general cost of a 50-watt panel is about $215, or about $4.30 a watt. You also need to factor in installations costs. The average homeowner will pay between $4,000 and $5,000 to install an appropriate solar panel system.

If your home is especially shady and you aren’t willing to take down the surrounding trees, Garrison said it can take nearly double the time for payback. “Any shading on the roof reduces the amount of production,” Garrison said.Keep in mind, most solar panel systems are estimated to last about 25 to 30 years.  Garrison said, “Gas, oil, and electric aren’t giving you a payback. Households using solar panels (for power) are able to stabilize long-term energy costs. You won’t be hit by the fluctuations in the energy market.”A note about government incentives:Currently, homeowners can take advantage of a variety of federal and state incentives, essentially paying back about 30 percent of the cost of the system on average.  Whether you have a new home under construction or an existing home needing a ventilation upgrade, RenewAire offers you the best ventilation choice. How to quickly find the product you need? Use the following rough sizing guide to help you choose or give us a call.

For the commercial contractor or specifying engineer, RenewAire residential ERV models are UL listed for commercial applications and are included in our ERVCalc Software. They are perfect to try on your next project. Explore the benefits of RenewAire ERV on a small scale! RenewAire has gained a reputation among contractors as being one of the easiest ERVs to install and start up. We believe that this stems from our corporate philosophy of Simplicity, Reliability, and Performance in everything we do. This philosophy certainly carries through our fan powered Commercial ERV line: RenewAire's cabinets of static plate energy exchange cores allow complete application flexibility including accommodating unlimited airflow capacities using multiple unit arrays. Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS) are typically part of a "de-coupled system" approach using two pieces of equipment, the first being a Dedicated Outdoor Air System which provides outside ventilation air directly to the space.

The DOAS uses energy recovery to greatly reduce the sensible and latent loads of the outside air, and then a post treatment section (generally direct expansion coils) to further dry and cool the air. The second piece of equipment is the space conditioning equipment that deals with the sensible loads or occupancy comfort loads only. This approach, in most cases, greatly reduces the size of the space conditioning equipment. RenewAire offers four different models covering most applications: RenewAire has the perfect control for each of our products, some specific for that product, others applicable across product lines. Note: Effective ventilation is ensured with integral automatic proportional runtime control built-in to RenewAire's BR70 and BR130. Commercial 24VAC powered controls are:People often contact us to ask what size dehumidifier they should buy when they want to purchase a room dehumidifier to reduce the humidity in a room or a basement in order to prevent the growth of toxic mold and reduce the risk of mold-related health problems.

Using a dehumidifier is an easy way to prevent mold, because mold requires moisture in order to grow and spread. Room dehumidifiers are small appliances that are reasonably priced and easy to use, so it’s a great solution for damp, musty basements or other rooms. When we talk about the size of a dehumidifier, we don’t mean how tall it is or how much it weighs. What we mean, instead, is how many pints of water it can pull from the air in one day. Dehumidifiers that can remove more moisture from the air in one day tend to be larger, meaning they take up more space, than those that remove less moisture, but when talking about the size of a dehumidifier, think about how much work you need it to do.Start by measuring the area in which you want to place a dehumidifier. To determinate how many square feet you’re dealing with, use a tape measure and measure the length and the width of the room and multiply them. For instance, a room that is 20 feet long and 15 feet wide is a total of 300 square feet (20 x 15 = 300).

Then refer to the guidelines established by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) to help homeowners determine what size dehumidifier they should purchase: 30-Pint Dehumidifier – This is the size recommended for areas up to 1500 square feet, regardless of how damp the area is. That means it will be appropriate for most residential basements. It’s also the size recommended for areas up to 2000 square feet, providing the area is not more than moderately damp; for instance, if the area feels damp and smells slightly musty when it’s very humid out but not all the time.40 or 50-Pint Dehumidifier – This is the size recommended for areas up to 2000 square feet that feel damp and smell musty all the time, or in which moisture can be seen on the walls, or in which you’ve dealt with mold growth in the past.60 or 70-Pint Dehumidifier – This is the size recommended for areas larger than Most dehumidifiers have a bucket that collects water and must be emptied periodically.

However, some models can be set up to drain automatically as long as you set them up near a suitable drain. These models work well in basements, where floor drains are often already installed. All that water that is removed from the air needs to go somewhere, though. No matter what size dehumidifier you need, our preferred room dehumidifier brand is Frigidaire. Frigidaire offers dehumidifiers in a variety of sizes, including 30-pint, 50-pint, and 70-pint dehumidifiers. They can be set up to drain continuously if located near a drain, so you don’t have to worry about emptying a bucket of water regularly. If you don’t set them up to drain continuously, all Frigidaire models have an automatic shut off so the bucket will not overflow if you forget to empty it one day. Most also come with a washable filter that helps remove bacteria and other debris from the air. The Energy Star models work efficiently to save energy and to save you money. We also found the consumer reviews on Amazon very helpful.