A 10kW Solar System for a Five-Bedroom Home in Kingston

When the power goes out, keeping food cold, lights on and a bedroom comfortable makes a practical difference at home. In Jamaica, JPS’s restoration process works from major electricity infrastructure through community networks to smaller lines. A solar and battery system gives connected appliances another source of power while the household waits for its supply to return. How long it lasts depends on the charge available and what is running. JPS explains its restoration process here.

For this five-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Kingston, we supplied a Sunchees system for household appliances including the refrigerator, lighting and air conditioning, with backup power for hurricane-season outages in mind. The installation date was Aug 15, 2026, and the site work took two days.

Why solar and batteries suit daily life in Jamaica

Jamaica’s energy ministry puts the country’s annual average solar resource at about 5kWh per square metre per day. That gives households useful daytime sunlight to work with, while much of their lighting and bedroom cooling happens after sunset. A battery allows some of the electricity collected during the day to be used later. Jamaica’s solar resource.

At this home, 12 solar panels are paired with lithium battery storage. When generation is sufficient, solar can serve appliances running during the day and charge the battery with the surplus. After dark, or during an interruption, stored energy can supply connected loads. Keeping fewer bedrooms cooled during an outage leaves more energy for the rest of the evening.

What was installed at the home

The 10kW inverter rating helps determine which appliances can run together. The 7.2kWp panel array collects the daytime energy, and the battery stores some of it for later. Separating those jobs makes it easier to choose a system around the appliances you use and the hours you want them to run.

How long could the fridge, lights and air conditioning run in an outage?

For a setup using one 51.2V, 300Ah battery, allowing for a reserve and conversion losses leaves about 11kWh for appliances. Suppose the refrigerator, selected lights and other small essentials, including the system’s own consumption, average 400W in total:

• Without air conditioning: around 27 hours at that average demand.
• With one bedroom air conditioner: about 1.5kW in total, giving roughly 7 hours.
• With two bedroom air conditioners: about 2.6kW in total, giving roughly 4 hours.

These estimates start with a fully charged battery, retain a 20% reserve and allow for 90% conversion efficiency, with no solar or other charging during the outage. Each bedroom air conditioner is assumed to average 1.1kW. Cooling demand can fall once a room reaches its set temperature, or rise in hotter weather and with larger units. The battery, inverter and connected circuits must also support the running and starting demand. These examples help you compare keeping one bedroom cool with keeping two cool during an interruption; they are not measured running times for this household.

What could a similar household save each month?

Consider a home running three bedroom air conditioners for eight hours each day, with about half those hours during daylight. At the assumed 1.1kW per unit, cooling uses 26.4kWh daily. Allow another 8.6kWh for refrigeration, lighting, kitchen appliances and other household use, and the total is 35kWh a day, or 1,050kWh over 30 days. This is a household with substantial cooling demand; using only one or two bedrooms would change the budget.

For budgeting, we use J$55–65 per kWh, with an allowance for tax and the fixed customer charge added separately. This is a planning assumption informed by the official 2024 residential average of J$56.95 per kWh and JPS’s changing bill components; it is not a complete current tariff quotation. See the official energy statistics and JPS billing information.

Under that example, electricity-use charges before solar would be approximately J$58,000–68,000 a month. The 7.2kWp array’s estimated monthly generation is 810–864kWh. If about 648–778kWh ultimately replaces grid purchases, the reduction in electricity-use charges would be around J$36,000–51,000 a month, leaving approximately J$15,000–26,000 in electricity-use charges. Add the fixed customer charge if the grid account is retained.

The generation estimate uses roughly five equivalent full-sun hours per day, a 20–25% allowance for generation losses, and a further assumption that 80–90% of that output ultimately replaces electricity purchased for the home. The remaining allowance covers storage losses and unused generation. These are broad planning estimates, not a site-specific weather or hourly energy simulation; cloudy months and shading can produce lower results.

Some air conditioning runs during daylight in this example, so it can use solar electricity directly. If cooling is concentrated entirely at night, one battery limits how much daytime energy can be carried over, and savings may be lower. Equipment purchase, finance and maintenance costs are separate from these bill reductions. Your own bill and appliance schedule will give a more useful household budget than bedroom count alone.

Planning solar for your Kingston home

Our 10kW home solar system range is a starting point for exploring the equipment. Send us a recent electricity bill, air-conditioner details and photos of the space available for panels. Tell us which rooms you want to keep powered during an outage, so we can discuss panel numbers, storage and simultaneous appliance use around your routine.

Frequently asked questions

Can I choose the same system because my home also has five bedrooms?

Use it as a guide to scale, then compare actual use. Cooling two occupied bedrooms each night is a different demand from cooling all five. Electric water heating, cooking and other large appliances also change the capacity required.

Does the two-day installation include shipping?

The two days refer to site installation for this project. Ordering, transport and site work are separate stages and can be scheduled separately when you plan delivery and access to the property.

When would more panels help more than a larger battery?

If the battery struggles to reach its target charge even through a run of sunny days after daytime appliances have been supplied, compare adding panels with reducing daytime use. More panels increase the ability to collect energy, within the inverter’s permitted solar-input limits. A larger battery adds storage space.

Editorial sources

• Jamaica energy ministry: solar resource
• JPS: power restoration process
• JPS: fuel rates and billing information
• JPS: understanding your bill
• Jamaica Energy Statistics 2024: residential rate averages, PDF page 18