Reduced battery sizing in a Solar Home System with respect to the night load and solar panel size

A model has been presented to estimate the battery size in a Solar Home System with respect to the night time load and the panel size. Falling solar panel cost has opened up the possible options to reduce the battery size by increasing panel size. It has been shown that although the cost of the system increases by a small margin, an increased size of the solar panel enhances the overall energy output and the cost of energy is significantly reduced.