what is the solar collector area needed for 8 persons in ahouse?

Answer 1

You did not give enough information to give you a real answer. So using the numbers provided by the guy above of 36 kWh usage a day which sounds about right to me.

If you have 5 hours of what is called peak sun you will need 36 kWh divided by 5 hours sun for a 7200 watts in solar panels.

You will need 42 167 Watt Sharp solar panels. They are 52 inches long by 39 inches wide. So if you make 3 strings of 14 panels. It would be 13 foot wide and 45.5 foot long. Would cover a total area of 591 Sq foot.

So the area covered would be less then a small house roof. Most houses are 1800 Sq to over 2000 Sq.

Answer 2

None, if they don't use any electricity.

A typical 4-person house would use about 24 kWh/day:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/BoiLu.shtml

An 8-person house would be less than double, so say 36 kWh/day.

In the desert, the daily insolation is on the order of 8 kWh/m^2, elsewhere it's a lot less. Additionally, you have to provide sufficient margin to ride out at least a few days of rain or clouds, say 5. Finally, you need to factor in the efficiency of the solar cells, which is, at best, only about 15%, coupled with the efficiency of the overall energy storage/conversion system, which may only be about 60%, resulting in a net of 10% efficiency.

Assuming only 2 kWh/m^2 insolation, you'd need 18 m^2 * 5 /10% or about 900 m^2 of solar cell to adequately power such a house. This works out to be about 1/4 acre of solar cell, which is larger by about a factor of 2 than most house lots in densely populated areas.