Solar Panels North West Facing

I get asked this a lot and there isn t really a simple answer.

Solar panels north west facing.

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 panels would. 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. In general west is second best because many places get early morning haze or fog which can reduce the power production of your panels. We designed and modeled the system in helioscope our sales and design software platform.

We start with a typical residential system in charlotte north carolina. We have a blog about east and west facing solar panels and the basic gist is this. With a 2 12 pitched roof 9 5 tilt the south facing. For example in brisbane if your panels are facing west 270 and are angled 20 from horizontal you will get 89 of the energy compared to the optimum orentation of north and 30.

This table shows you how much energy you can expect to get from almost any combination of solar panel direction and angle in the capital cities compared to the optimum orientation. 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. Can solar panels be fitted if your roof is east west facing. So for example if you had a house with a dual mppt inverter that can fit 8 north facing panels 8 east facing panels and 12 west facing panels then you might hook up the panels in each direction in their own string and connect the north and east panels in parallel to one mppt tracker and the 12 west facing panels to the other mppt tracker.

If you don t have a south facing roof east or west facing panels can also be an option you will typically see only a 20 decrease in energy production from a roof facing due east or west. 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. I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels. However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner.

West facing solar panels will also prepare you if your utility ever switched to time of use tou billing because they. For australia solar power yields are higher when panels face north. West facing solar panels get less sun than those that face south but it s not as little as you may think. North facing panels on the other hand generally produce much less energy than south facing panels and usually present challenges for homeowners looking.

In fact all southern hemisphere locations should ideally position panels in a northerly direction.