Solar Panels East West Facing Roof

At higher pitches the difference increases.

Solar panels east west facing roof. 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. 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. Can solar panels be fitted if your roof is east west facing. I get asked this a lot and there isn t really a simple answer.

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. Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions. 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. An example of a south west facing roof.

Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. That s much better than most people would guess and even an east west facing roof can generate around 80 of the maximum. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof.

You either accept that your output will be down to the sort of levels in the table above or you spend a little more money and try to maximise the your output with technology. 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. 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. It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move.