Do I Put Solar Panels Facing The South

We also took at look at a tilt angle of 40 for the south facing orientations mainly just to show that a south facing roof with a steep pitch is probably not a good place for solar panels.

Do i put solar panels facing the south.

When the sun shines onto the surface at an angle the panel will still generate electricity but it will be less effective. Solar panels perform at their best when the sun is shining straight on to the panels. For years homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south. With a 2 12 pitched roof 9 5 tilt the south facing array will produce 1 361 kwh kwp 1.

We designed and modeled the system in helioscope our sales and design software platform. In the uk south facing panels will generate more than other orientations. The flatter a south facing roof is i e. That captures the most solar energy over the course of the day which benefits the homeowner but.

How much worse are north facing solar modules. One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors. I did a quick check using nrel s pvwatts tool and it looks like in placentia ca there s about a 10 difference in favor of flat south facing panels over east facing panels installed on a 30 pitched roof. If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options.

Solar panels facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern facing roof. We start with a typical residential system in charlotte north carolina. Do you have to have a south facing roof to have solar panels.