Solar Panels On East And West Facing Roofs

For homes with roofs that face to the south and that have an appropriate pitch for mounting solar panels installing an efficient home solar system is fairly straight forward because both the roof orientation and angle pitch are optimal for harvesting clean energy from the sun.

Solar panels on east and west facing roofs.

We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof. Around the world solar developers are turning array designs on their head and choosing to go east west instead. An example of a south west facing roof. I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels.

However under the right circumstances it is possible to have an east west split of solar panels on a single inverter input like the diagram above imagine the left hand 3 panels facing west and the right hand 3 panels facing east and still have almost the same performance as if they were on separate strings attached to a two seperate. We are looking at installing a 5kw system lg neon 2 panels and fornius inverter on a double storey house and had initially thought of splitting the panels between our north east and west facing roofs so that we got production over most of the day 8 panels north 4 east and 4 west. However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner. At higher pitches the difference increases.

That s much better than most people would guess and even an east west facing roof can generate around 80 of the maximum. Tra sun and snow. At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south. If the east facing panels still produce plenty of energy from the morning and early afternoon sun the west facing panels would likely produce energy from mid morning on.

Following on from a recent feature in pv tech power volume 14 here are the five key. Panels mounted on a standard pitch roof facing east or west will produce approximately 15 less output than panels mounted on a south facing roof of a standard pitch. I get asked this a lot and there isn t really a simple answer. Why orientation matters with rooftop solar in general solar panels that are oriented directly east or directly west will produce about 20 percent less electricity than if they were facing south.

And while there is some indication that facing solar panels to the west can also be. It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move.