How can I run my house purely off of solar panels?

No, because you have night time usage and cloudy days where you could not produce any electricity. However you could obtain all power from solar panels and then store energy for these times, but you can't do so economically.

First you would have to determine what is the minimal amount of solar insolation that your house receives. This would probably be in December in the Northern Hemisphere. Then you need to consider how many cloudy days and how much night time usage you need to consider for energy storage. Then you need to consider how much of an extra energy buffer you need to build into the system.

Finally you will be faced with the reality that you could be paying 3 or 4 times more for a system to satisfy 100% of your needs than you would for a system that could for-fill 80% of your needs.

In the summer you would be producing far more electricity than you could use or practically store. Eventually we will have batteries that can store energy in a stable chemistry over a very long period of time. These heat batteries might be such an example: http://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/2010/10/26/res...

There are a variety of factors that come into play in order for you to calculate the answer. Additionally, there are a number of variables that can make the answer change over time. The number of solar panels you need to install to power your home will depend upon your electric power demands, the weather in your area, the angle of your roof, shade issues from nearby trees or buildings and the size of the cells. All of these factors are important and must be built into your calculations so that you can create the best solution for your home and your future needs.

I ve been researching this myself! I need appr 16000w per year. I live in MN which a zone 5 on a solar map (4.4 hrs of sunlight per day). I would need 56 panels at 300w each!!! pffft - I d be dead before I recouped my cost, plus my roof isn t even that big! Sure, I can reduce my bill, but then again the $ to reduce it..... I m now looking into wind turbine since it always seems windy here.

It is not feasible to do everything with solar panels. However, if you overproduce during the day and sell the excess to the power company, you might be able to [pay for what you have to buy from them.

Another thing you can do is use renewable energy in other forms, with windmills, hydraulic rams, and trombe walls.

In my opinion you can do it. You will need to have solar panels. and batteries to store the power until needed.

It will cost you over $50,000 to get 16,000 Watts of solar panels, but if you have that much money you can definitely do it.

1

depends where you live -- you know clouds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

mdpup.com