Solar Panels On East Facing Roof

An example of a south west facing roof.

Solar panels on east facing roof. Panels on a south facing roof even laid flat will almost invariably produce more electricity that east facing panels. If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options. This arrangement is often called and east west split and has the advantage of producing a more constant output of electricity during. That goes double if you get any fog or mist in the morning which will reduce the efficiency of the east facing panels.

One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors. 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. I get asked this a lot and there isn t really a simple answer. 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 the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner. Can solar panels be fitted if your roof is east west facing. 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. Solar panels facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern 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. At higher pitches the difference increases. 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. At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south.

East and west orientation. We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof. Just make sure there s no obstructions that would cause shade on the panels and you re golden. Placing some solar panels facing east and some facing west will result in the total amount of electricity produced being around 12 less than if all the modules were placed facing north.

I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels. 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. Cleve hill solar park.