Solar power for the house: what a home actually needs

Somebody searching for solar power for the house is not looking for a company. They want to know what it costs, what it actually runs, and whether it lasts the night. This answers those in the order the decision is made.

Start from the loads, not the roof

The most common mistake is starting with a panel count. A house does not consume panels, it consumes kilowatt-hours. Write down what you want to run and for how long:

• A fridge runs all day but draws in bursts — count its daily energy, not its nameplate
• Air conditioning is the largest load in the Gulf, and its night-time hours decide the battery
• Pumps and washing machines have high starting current: the inverter has to survive the start, not just the average

The inverter sets the moment, the battery sets the night

These are two separate numbers and most buyers conflate them. Inverter kW says how much can run at once. Battery kWh says how long it keeps running. A 5 kW inverter with a 5 kWh battery runs a lot for a short time; reverse them and it runs a little for a long time.

Do you need a battery at all?

If your grid is reliable and the goal is a smaller bill, no — a grid-tied inverter alone does the job for less than half the cost. If outages are the problem, the battery is the real product and the inverter is how you reach it.

The numbers are on the pages, not in a quotation

Every inverter and every battery here shows its spec table and its price in your market's currency. Work out your loads first, then open the category and compare.