I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels.
Free solar panels east west roof.
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.
Solar panels installed on a roof facing southwest or southeast will generally produce about 8 less power than the same panels in the same climate on a south facing roof.
However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner.
If you look back to systems that were built a few years ago you would typically find them facing south says david wedepohl director of communications and markets at the german solar industry association bsw.
Jim panels on a south facing roof even laid flat will almost invariably produce more electricity that east facing panels.
I have a house with an east west facing roof.
Around the world solar developers are turning array designs on their head and choosing to go east west instead.
My house faces south.
At latitude 36deg s i calculated that it will cast a moving shadow across all my panels 6 months of the year.
That goes double if you get any fog or mist in the morning which will reduce the efficiency of the east facing panels.
I figured i d have to get tigo or enphase.
Following on from a recent feature in pv tech power volume 14 here are the five key.
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.
The problem is i have a tall pole 14m to the north of my roof line.
I had an 8 4kw array installed on the east roof and it is working decently considering the orientation 18 1 mw hrs over 36 months in minnesota or 6 mw hrs year.
I plan to have solar panels on the north east west roof.
The height is 27m.
And while there is some indication that facing solar panels to the west can also be.
Pvwatts predicted 20 less production due to facing east versus south.
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.