Solar Panels East West Roof

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.

Solar panels east west roof. 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. It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move. 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 an east west split of solar panels is desired where some panels are facing east and some facing west then normally those panels would be placed on separate strings and a two input inverter would be used. Even with this decrease in performance solar panels will produce enough electricity to save you hundreds of dollars a year. The key factor for me that will allow this to work is my roof pitch. In theory the east facing panels will catch the early morning sun all the way up till noon then the west facing panels will catch the sun from noon till dusk.

However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner. Why orientation matters with rooftop solar. This is a result of the smoothing of the array s. Afternoon peak prices are higher than shoulder or off peak prices at other times.

However a new solar panel mounting system aims to alleviate some of the challenge of putting solar on east west roofs or non south facing roofs as it were and could open up the door for more potential solar homeowners to get the benefits of a solar array on their roof. If your panels are west facing you will be producing more power right during the expensive peak times than you would if the panels were east facing. While east west solar arrays may have a reduced total output the value of the electricity they produce is inherently higher in most markets. 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.