Solar Panel System Calculator
Calculate the solar panel capacity, number of panels, daily solar production, and charge controller size needed for your home or office.
1. Solar Panel Settings
2. What Will Run During the Day?
Add appliances that will be running during daylight hours. Solar panels can power these appliances while also charging your battery.
3. Do You Need to Recharge the Battery?
If you use battery power at night or during an outage, enter the amount of battery energy you want the solar system to replace during the next sunny period.
Understand Your Solar Panel Recommendation
Solar panels must produce enough energy for your daytime use and, when required, replace the battery energy used during the previous backup period.
Why did the calculator give me this result?
We combine your energy demand, battery recharge requirement, useful sunlight hours and normal system losses to estimate the panel capacity and panel count.
Learn the technical details
Panel output changes with sunlight, heat, dust, shading, orientation and installation quality. The final panel wiring must also stay within the inverter or charge-controller limits.
Related Solar Pricing tools
Solar Panel Calculator FAQs
Common questions about sizing solar panels for a home or small business in Nigeria.
What does the solar panel calculator help me work out?
It estimates the solar array size and number of panels needed from your energy use, peak sunlight hours, system losses and battery recharge requirement. It can also estimate the charge-controller requirement based on the selected system settings.
How many 500W or 550W solar panels do I need?
The answer depends on your required solar array. For example, a 4.4kW array can be built with eight 550W panels. Your actual result depends on your daily energy use, battery recharge needs, sunlight hours and system losses.
What peak sun hours should I use in Nigeria?
There is no single value that is perfect for every location or season. This calculator uses a planning value that you can change. For a final system design, use solar resource information appropriate to your location and allow for seasonal and weather changes.
Is MPPT better than PWM for solar panels?
MPPT controllers can normally make better use of the panel voltage and are often preferred for larger or more demanding systems. PWM controllers can still be useful for smaller systems. The correct choice depends on the panel configuration, battery voltage, system size and controller specifications.
Why does the calculator add losses?
Solar energy is lost at different points in a real system, including the inverter, battery charging, wiring and other equipment. Allowing for losses helps avoid sizing the panel array from an ideal laboratory result.
Can I use the panel result to buy solar panels immediately?
Use it as a planning starting point. Before buying, confirm the exact panel voltage and current, series and parallel configuration, inverter or charge-controller limits, roof space, shading and the installation requirements.