In the development of energy sources in rural regions in Egypt at the brink of the 21st century, it is necessary to view the use of solar energy in all applications as one of the most promising new and renewable energy sources. This paper presents a study and design of a complete photovoltaic system for providing the electrical loads in a family house according to their energy requirements. A computer program is developed to achieve this and to determine the specifications of photovoltaic (PV) system components. It uses the solar energy data of the selected rural zone and all the required information about the electrical loads. Also, the effects of solar intensity variations and surface temperature variations on the amount of power provided by the PV panels are taken into consideration. It is found that providing electricity to a family house in a rural zone using PV systems is very beneficial and competitive with the other types of conventional energy sources, especially considering the decreasing prices of these systems and their increasing efficiencies and reliability. They have also the advantage of maintaining a clean environment. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.