Solar & Inverter Sizing Calculator for a Nigerian Home

Most solar quotes in Nigeria are built on a guess about your consumption. This does it properly: list what you actually run and for how long, and it returns the daily energy, the battery bank, the panel array and the inverter size — using the depth-of-discharge and efficiency derates that separate a system that works from one that dies at 9pm.

☀️ Calculator

Your load schedule

Appliance	Watts	Qty	Hours/day	Wh/day
LED bulbs	9	6	6	324
Ceiling fans	70	2	8	1120
Television	80	1	4	320
Decoder / router	20	1	10	200
Refrigerator (inverter type)	150	1	8	1200
Total	444 W			3164

7.03 kWh

of solar panels: 937 W

Daily energy use 3.16 kWh

Monthly energy use 96.31 kWh

Total connected load 444 W

Inverter size to buy 650 W

Battery bank 7.03 kWh

Battery capacity at your system voltage 293 Ah

Same bank at 12V 586 Ah

Same bank at 24V 293 Ah

Same bank at 48V 146 Ah

Solar array required 937 W

Number of 450W panels 3

Number of 550W panels 2

Your load schedule
Appliance	Watts	Qty	Hours/day	Wh/day
LED bulbs	9	6	6.0	324
Ceiling fans	70	2	8.0	1120
Television	80	1	4.0	320
Decoder / router	20	1	10.0	200
Refrigerator (inverter type)	150	1	8.0	1200

Works without JavaScript — the figures above are a worked example using the default values.

Before you rely on this

Refrigerators and air conditioners cycle, so their rated wattage times their runtime overstates consumption — but only if you use the correct run hours. An inverter fridge runs roughly 8 of 24 hours; a conventional one can run 12 or more.
Air conditioning changes everything. A single 1.5HP unit can triple the size of the system you need. If you want AC on solar, budget for a substantially larger array and battery.
This sizes the system. It does not price it — quotes in Nigeria vary by more than 50% for the same bill of materials, so get at least three.

How this is calculated: Calculator logic in assets/js/calc-core.js, verified by the test suite in tests/calc-core.test.js. Rate inputs are prefilled from the figures below. · Data as of 2026-09-10
Prefilled rates are national reference values. Your own receipt, payslip or pump price always overrides them.

Frequently asked questions

How many solar panels do I need for a Nigerian home?

Divide your daily watt-hours by your peak sun hours and a 0.75 derate for real-world losses. A typical family home using 3kWh a day in Lagos needs about 1.1kW of panels — two or three 550W panels.

What size inverter should I buy?

Size it to your total connected load plus 25% surge headroom, then round up to the next standard size. A home with 430W of appliances needs a 650VA inverter, not a 500VA.

How many batteries do I need?

Take your daily watt-hours, multiply by the days of backup you want, and divide by depth of discharge and inverter efficiency. For 3kWh a day with one day of backup on lead-acid at 50% depth of discharge and 90% inverter efficiency, that is about 6.7kWh of battery.

Lithium or lead-acid?

Lead-acid is cheaper upfront and you can use half of it. Lithium costs roughly twice as much, you can use 80% of it, and it lasts three to four times longer — so over ten years lithium is usually the cheaper option, and it is the only sensible choice if you cycle daily.

Can I add panels later?

Yes, if the inverter has spare MPPT capacity and the battery bank can accept the charge. Buying a slightly larger hybrid inverter than you need today is often cheaper than replacing it in two years.

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