How to Use Solar Panels for Cooling Your Home
Last Updated: Mar 17, 2025Using the light and the heat from the sun to cool your home might seem a bit irrational, given that the sun is the largest source of heat on our planet. For centuries, the sun has been used as a natural source of warmth for hot water heating and the passive heating of the homes we live in. However, recent technologies have made it possible for homeowners to utilize the sun for the cooling of their homes. Below, we offer a complete guide for using solar panels and solar energy to cool your home this summer.
Table of Contents
- What Is The Environmental Cost of Air Conditioning?
- Bottom line
What Is The Environmental Cost of Air Conditioning?
According to the US Department of Energy, air conditioners account for 6 percent of all energy used in the United States and 12 percent of residential energy usage. With air conditioners in almost nine out of every ten American homes, our homes' artificial cooling accounts for an enormous amount of carbon dioxide emissions (assuming the home sources its electricity from carbon-intensive energy like coal or natural gas, which is how most utilities produce electricity).
Air conditioners are one of the primary sources of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emissions. HFCs are mainly used today in both refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. While HFCs was originally incorporated as a more environmentally friendly alternative to the CFCs that were found to be destroying our ozone layer, today, HFCs are a major contributor to global warming. Why?
HFC emissions are known to be 100 to 3,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide and can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. While HFCs in the atmosphere are relatively low compared to other greenhouse gasses, the primary sources of HFCs come from the manufacture of air conditioners and refrigeration equipment, leakage from these devices, and the end-of-life disposal of these units.
At the same time, air conditioning is a modern-day comfort and convenience that is increasingly necessary in a world affected by global warming. Some reports suggest that the increasing frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves worldwide could send mortality rates from high temperatures skyrocketing by as much as 2,000 percent. So how can we stay comfortably and safely cooler in increasingly hot summers while minimizing the environmental impact of artificially cooling our homes? Remarkably, solar technology offers three different ways to help keep your home cool this summer.
1. Solar Panels for Summer Air Conditioning
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has the ability to capture sunlight and use cells to turn that light into electricity. The PV cell is made up of layers of semiconducting material, with silicon as the preferred material. The light that shines on the cell subsequently creates an electric field across the layers, causing electricity to flow. When combined with energy-efficient home construction methods, solar panels can essentially create a Net Zero energy home or a home that produces as much (or more) energy than what it uses.
Unfortunately, the problem with air conditioning is that it takes a relatively large amount of energy to keep a home cool. Air conditioners are high wattage appliances and require a high current of electricity when the compressor is running. While Energy Star certified air conditioners today use only about half as much energy as those made back in the 1990s, air conditioners continue to be one of the most energy-intensive appliances within the home.
The exact amount of energy used by an air conditioner will depend on the AC unit's size, the quality of home construction, including insulation and building envelope standards, and the outside temperature. However, a 5,000-watt central air conditioning unit would require at least twenty 250-watt solar panels, without factoring in the power loss that occurs when converting the DC electricity from the panels to the AC electricity that the air conditioner requires.
The average central AC unit uses around 5,000 watts of power every hour for an average of nine hours every day during the hot summer months. For an average 5 kW household solar system, the majority of the electricity produced by your solar panel system would go towards the home's air conditioning requirements.
Smaller homes built with more energy-efficient construction practices, such as those developed by the passive house principles, can drastically reduce your home's cooling loads. However, for homes located in hot summer climates, relatively large solar panel systems will be needed for air conditioning needs.
2. Strategic Placement of Solar Panels
One of the best ways to reduce your home's overall cooling load is by lessening the amount of heat from the sun entering your home. Natural shading strategies focusing on strategic landscaping in your yard can reduce indoor temperatures without relying on artificial air conditioning. Similarly, one recent study found that “neighborhoods with well-shaded streets can be up to 6-10°F cooler than neighborhoods without good trees for shade.” Automated smart window shades, along with high-efficiency windows, can also drastically reduce the heat from the sun penetrating your home.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
