Do Solar Panels Need To Face South

While the angle of your solar panels is important a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face.

Do solar panels need to face south.

Solar panels however need to face solar or geographic south which is the direction towards the south pole. Solar panels installed on a roof facing southwest or southeast will generally produce about 8 less power than the same panels in the same climate on a south facing roof. The sun doesn t have to be beaming directly on the panels at the perfect angle. What you are doing is optimizing your energy production for maximum savings with your utility company.

By the same reasoning if the solar panel is located in the southern hemisphere the panel should instead face in the direction of true north. I was a little confused as i always thought the panel needed to be facing south. West facing solar panels get less sun than those that face south but it s not as little as you may think. Does my house have to face south for solar to work.

The installer said that he need to point the solar panel north. Solar panels convert light into dc electricity. Although doing this only brings about a 3 improvement in energy collection it will be a big deal if your solar array is huge or your extreme condition requires getting as much energy conversion as possible. The direction your panels face is certainly a factor in how much they will generate and closer to south is better but it is only one factor.

For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. According to the concord consortium makers of energy3d solar energy modeling software a home in boston ma with panels that face west would get 80 of the electricity that a house with south facing. If i was to turn in around on the same bracket it is mounted to it would be facing south to south west. However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner.

North is the only direction that we don t want to put panels on. It seems that west facing solar panels would help you to do that to a much greater degree than generally recommend south facing solar panels. During times of peak demand which is defined as 3 p m. This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere.

In any pv system related project we tend to set up solar panels to face the solar south rather than the magnetic south. When you point your solar panels west you are not maximizing the total amount of energy that is produced. It actually facing north east. To do this you should point your solar panel west.

We can install panels on south east or west facing roofs. Face panels south for non tou ratepayers. The short answer is no.