Many people do not quite understand how much energy is needed to power a home in a day
Plano, Tx December 7th, 2022 – I was inspired to write this article because of the recent launch of the Tesla Semi. Not to call anyone out or give opinions on other products, but it was one thing that drew my attention. The Semi is going to get an all-new charger with one megawatt. The reaction to this consisted of awe and excitement but as an electrical professional, I couldn’t help but be shocked. (No pun intended) One megawatt is equal to 1000 kilowatts or 1 million watts. If you are not familiar with watts as a unit of measurement, then these numbers mean nothing. So, to put things in normal terms, the average home uses 28.9 kWh per DAY. That’s 840kwh per month or the same amount of energy used to fast charge one Tesla Semi. You may have noticed that kwh is different from kw. Kwh is the amount of energy something uses over an hour of time.
Back to the home. 28.9kw is 1.2kw per hour. The average solar panel is about 300 watts so 4 panels would be able to cover an hour of use, right? No, the sun does not shine 24 hours a day. On average the sun is up seven hours a day, meaning in seven hours the average home needs to produce 4.12kw. Disclosure: I am using averages for simplification. Homes do not use a lot of energy at night while people are asleep or during the day when they work. There is also one more leg to this scenario though, peak sun. Peak sun is when the intensity of sunlight reaches an average of 1kw of energy per square meter. Peak sun is the best sun. Where solar panels are running at their best. The is anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. So best case scenario with peak sun the average home will have to generate 5.78kw over five hours (best case scenario). This would require 20 solar panels that are about 1 square meter each or about 215 square feet. All are positioned in the optimal arrangement to capture peak sun on the roof of the home. This is why batteries are important with solar arrays and that topic will be in another post.
When you break down these numbers it becomes overwhelming to think about the number of solar panels needed to generate enough power for one Tesla Semi. Or how your home's beautiful roof can get vandalized by a thrown-together solar array. This is another example of why I created HYVT. It creates green energy in the most space-efficient manner possible. While also being exponentially efficient in creating energy in that space. My goal was to eliminate the need for large solar arrays on beautiful roofs and we have done just that.
About RitzWerks
RitzWerks was founded by Mark Ritvalski in 2019 to develop technologies that improve the current options available for green energy generation. Throughout research and development, the principle of Energy Independence became the foundation of the company. Energy Independence is the idea that for the world to truly wean itself off fossil fuels, action must be taken now. To do this the world needs products that are more efficient, cost-effective, and applicable to multiple applications. For more information visit ritzwerks.com
Contact: All inquiries can be sent to Mark Ritvalski at mark@ritzwerks.com