Solar Panels On East West Facing Roof

In winter when the sun is at an angle less than the pitch of the roof the panels will receive no sunlight.

Solar panels on east 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 you went with a professional solar installer they probably had a good reason to install panels facing east rather than west. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. 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.

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. Technically east facing panels can get as much sun as west facing ones as long as there are no other issues like morning fog or clouds or shade. 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. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation.

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. With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day.