Modern residential solar installations generate enough green energy to meet all household power needs throughout the year. All you need to figure out is your annual power consumption and design a solar solution that fully meets your consumption needs.
You can determine your annual power consumption by tallying the past 12 months’ power bills. For higher accuracy, you can average out your annual power consumption over the past 2 years. If you’ve recently installed new appliances that consume substantial power, then we’ll have to factor them in as well. However, for our back-of-the-envelope estimation, we don’t have to get that granular.
Now, let’s figure out how much an average home’s solar costs in Round Rock, TX.
Determining Annual Power Consumption of an Average Round Rock Household
The average households across the state of Texas pay anywhere between $150 to $200 per month for utility power, depending on where they live. Although the household’s power consumption does not vary much from one location to another, the power rates they pay do.
Assuming the average electricity rate in the city of Round Rock to be 15¢/kWh, we can easily determine the average monthly consumption of households as 1,000kWh to 1,333kWh (utility bill/power rate)
This translates to an annual consumption of 12,000kWh to 16,000kWh.
Calculating the Average Size of the Home Solar Installation in Round Rock, Tx
Now that we know an average household’s annual power consumption in Round Rock, we can quickly determine the size of the solar system that perfectly meets their needs.
The amount of power solar panels generate depends on the average peak sun hours (the period when the panels receive direct sunlight) in your location. The state of Texas receives an abundance of sunlight each year, as it’s close to the equator. The peak sun hours for Texas is roughly 5 hours.
A solar system with 1kW installed capacity generates about 5kWh of power during the day. That’s about 1,825kWh of annual power generation.
To generate 16,000kWh of power, which is the far end of the annual power consumption of an average household in Round Rock, you will need a solar system of 9kW (16,000kWh / 1,825kWh) installed capacity.
Calculating the Cost of an Average Residential Home Solar in Round Rock, Tx
A complete residential solar setup, including installation, costs about $3.5 per watt of installed capacity. For installing a 9kW (9,000 watts) solar system, that translates to an approximate cost of $31,500.
Once you factor in various incentives like the federal income tax credit, which alone can slash your investment by a flat 30%, the real investment into the solar system will be between $20,000 and $25,000.