If you’re planning on installing a rooftop solar system, understanding the weight of your solar panels is another key factor to consider. So you need to calculate solar power you need to use and decide how many solar panels you to buy. Knowing a solar panel’s weight is the best way to be certain that your roof can support a full installation.
While panel weights vary from brand to brand, most panels weigh about 40 pounds.
SunPower panels are the lightest of all major brands*, with some of our panels weighing as little as 33 pounds. For comparison, at the top end of the range, some conventional panels weigh as much as 50 pounds.
Summary: How many panels do you need?
Knowing the answers to the above questions will give you an idea of the ideal number of panels for your electricity generation needs — or at least a realistic range. Next, a professional installer needs to assess your roof architecture, angle to the sun, and other factors to see if and how you’d be able to physically arrange the right number of panels on your roof to achieve your daily energy production goals.
You should also consider net metering as you’re considering how much money you’ll save and make from your solar system. Net metering is how your utility company credits you for producing excess solar energy when the sun is shining and then lets you draw from those credits when you’re using a conventional power grid at night if you don’t store your excess solar energy in a battery storage system.
To get started, check out our solar power calculator, which can help you figure out how much you might save going solar.
To determine your home’s average energy requirements, look at past utility bills. You can calculate how many solar panels you need by multiplying your household’s hourly energy requirement by the peak sunlight hours for your area and dividing that by a panel’s wattage. Use a low-wattage (150 W) and high-wattage (370 W) example to establish a range (ex: 17-42 panels to generate 11,000 kWh/year). Note that the size of your roof and how much sunlight your roof gets are factors as well.
