Solar Panels East West Roof

Why orientation matters with rooftop solar.

Solar panels east west roof.

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. 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. 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. This is a result of the smoothing of the array s.

It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move. Time of use tariff schedule as displayed on the reposit first monitoring app. 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. 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. Even with this decrease in performance solar panels will produce enough electricity to save you hundreds of dollars a year. 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. 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.

Afternoon peak prices are higher than shoulder or off peak prices at other times. The key factor for me that will allow this to work is my roof pitch. While east west solar arrays may have a reduced total output the value of the electricity they produce is inherently higher in most markets. Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions.