---
title: "Calculates total daily energy consumption from an appliance list — the critical first step before sizing solar panels or batteries. Enter each appliance with its wattage, hours of daily use, and quantity. Outputs total daily kWh (with configurable safety margin for surge and inrush current), peak simultaneous wattage, and recommended inverter VA rating per NEC 125% continuous load rule. Feeds directly into solar_sizing (daily_kwh) and battery_autonomy (daily_kwh). Essential for residential, RV, cabin, and off-grid system design."
method: POST
path: "/api/solar_load_audit"
tags: ["power"]
---

# Calculates total daily energy consumption from an appliance list — the critical first step before sizing solar panels or batteries. Enter each appliance with its wattage, hours of daily use, and quantity. Outputs total daily kWh (with configurable safety margin for surge and inrush current), peak simultaneous wattage, and recommended inverter VA rating per NEC 125% continuous load rule. Feeds directly into solar_sizing (daily_kwh) and battery_autonomy (daily_kwh). Essential for residential, RV, cabin, and off-grid system design.

`POST /api/solar_load_audit`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://calc.engineer`
- URL: `https://calc.engineer/api/solar_load_audit`
- Auth: none declared

## Request body

- object
  - `appliances` object[], required: List of appliances with wattage, hours per day, and quantity
    - `name` string, required: Appliance name (e.g. 'Refrigerator', 'LED Light')
    - `watts` number, required: Power consumption in watts (W)
    - `hours_per_day` number, required: Average hours of use per day
    - `quantity` number: Number of identical units, default 1
  - `safety_margin_pct` number: Safety margin percentage to account for surge/inrush current, default 20%

## Response `200`

Computed result for solar_load_audit

- object
  - `result` object, required
    - `total_daily_wh` number, required: Total daily energy consumption in watt-hours (Wh)
    - `total_daily_kwh` number, required: Total daily energy consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh)
    - `with_margin_kwh` number, required: Daily kWh including safety margin
    - `peak_watts` number, required: Peak simultaneous wattage if all appliances run at once (W)
    - `recommended_inverter_va` number, required: Recommended inverter size in VA (peak watts * 1.25 per NEC)
    - `appliance_count` number, required: Total number of appliance entries
    - `largest_load_watts` number, required: Wattage of the single largest appliance (W)
  - `tool` string, required
  - `version` string, required
  - `computed_at` string, date-time, required
  - `chain` object, required
    - `feeds` unknown[]
      - unknown
    - `accepts_from` unknown[]
      - unknown

## Other responses

- `400`: Validation error or invalid JSON
- `404`: Tool not found

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/calc/apis/calc-engineer-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/calc/apis/calc-engineer-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/calc/apis/calc-engineer-api/revisions/8830480ec488?raw)