Solar Panels East West Facing Roof

Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine.

Solar panels east west facing roof.

That s much better than most people would guess and even an east west facing roof can generate around 80 of the maximum. 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. 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. With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day.

Split your array in two and put half on the east and half on the west although arguably you would get similar results to the above two options. At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south. Put your panels on the west roof and take as much sun as you can in the evenings. They would then be in the shade during the first half of the day.

However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. Solar arrays that are situated east west can squeeze in more rows and panels and therefore a greater generation capacity than their south or north facing cousins. An example of a south west facing roof. Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions.

If an east west split of solar panels is desired where some panels are facing east and some facing west then normally those panels would be placed on separate strings and a two input inverter would be used. One of the stipulations in the rebate requirements was that the solar panels could be faced no more than 70 degrees from true south and this client s roof had an east west orientation as well as being covered in concrete tiles. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation. 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.

At higher pitches the difference increases. We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof. Updated may 18 2020. In winter when the sun is at an angle less than the pitch of the roof the panels will receive no sunlight.

In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk.