Solar Panels East West Facing Roof

At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south.

Solar panels east west facing roof.

Put your panels on the west roof and take as much sun as you can in the evenings. You also can mount solar panels on roofs that face east or west on the roof of another building like a barn or garage or on the ground. 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. In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk.

We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof. With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day. An example of a south 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.

If you went with a professional solar installer they probably had a good reason to install panels facing east rather than west. 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. They would then be in the shade during the first half of the day. 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.

Updated may 18 2020. 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. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. 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.

Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation. 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. At higher pitches the difference increases.

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.