East and west facing roofs are also suitable for solar panels and will still see a good deal of energy generation throughout the course of the day.
Solar panels on east facing roof uk.
If your roof faces another direction as you can likely still see plenty of benefit from installing a solar array.
Cleve hill solar park.
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.
A south south east or south west facing roof is ideal for homes in the uk.
They would all then be in the shade during the second half of the day.
In winter when the sun is at an angle less than the pitch of the roof the panels will receive no sunlight.
That s much better than most people would guess and even an east west facing roof can generate around 80 of the maximum.
Modern panels are able to perform better at less optimal angles and perform better in the type diffuse light we get in the uk.
You could install all your panels on the east roof and take as much sun as you can in the mornings.
With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day.
However this doesn t mean that east or west facing roofs can t also be suitable for solar panels.
There is only about a 5 percent loss in power output of solar if the panel are facing south east or south west compared to facing directly south.
Just make sure there s no obstructions that would cause shade on the panels and you re golden.
For example an east facing roof will be exposed to sunlight in the morning whereas a west facing roof will take in more sunlight.
Panels on a south facing roof even laid flat will almost invariably produce more electricity that east facing panels.
Put your panels on the west roof and take as much sun as you can in the evenings.
Is my roof suitable for pv solar panels.
In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk.
An example of a south west facing roof.
We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof.
At higher pitches the difference increases.
Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions.
At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south.