Meet Bob and Jean.
Bob and Jean have long planned to be a bit more self-sufficient and reduce their carbon footprint.
They grow their own veggies. Take public transport. And are generally conscious of their waste production and recycling efforts.
They are now ready to up their game and make a bigger change. With a bigger green impact. Solar panels.
Bob and Jean have a 15 year old son called Michael.
Bob likes his power tools. And Jean loves to bake. They both enjoy a quiet night at home in front of the television.
Michael plays football twice a week and is an enthusiastic electric guitarist.
Bob and Jean just bought him a pair of noise cancelling earphones for his last birthday.
They live together in a 3 bedroom house.
For the purpose of the UK census they are an average-sized family living in an average-sized home.
Their average household consumption is 250 kWh per month, or 3000 kWh per year.
Their lifestyle goal is to produce 50% of their annual energy consumption through their solar panels system.
Financially, they are not ready to invest in producing more of their energy consumption through solar.
Their long-term goal is to scale up to covering 100% of their consumption in 6-8 years time, when their system has already paid for itself.
Bob is an ideas man. Jean is a research lady.
Bob has decided to host a solar powered birthday festival next summer for himself.
Jean has figured out that to optimise their solar electricity they need to store it in batteries to better spread its use over the course of a year.
This means they won’t need to use the energy in real time or risk losing it.
So on sunny days instead of being a slave to wash everything, and mow the lawn twice.
They will be able to take it easy.
That’s the lifestyle destination for Bob and Jean.
Not forgetting Keith.
He takes after his Dad. and is already planning his set for the solar birthday festival.
Their 50% energy consumption goal means their solar panels need to generate roughly 125 kWh per month or 1500 kWh per year.
Bob and Jean plan to buy 350 watt solar panels.
Averaged over the course of a year a 350 watt solar panel can expect to generate 265 kWh per year.
So; 1500 kWh per year target ÷ 265 kWh per panel output = 6 panels
Bob, being a man who loves a budget, likes the idea of keeping a keen eye on the data.
He’s going to start a spreadsheet.
Jean is keen to bake some solar cupcakes for the next village fair.
But before that she’s going to research finance options for electric cars and chargers.