Solar Panels On East Facing Roof

Solar panels facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern facing roof.

Solar panels on east facing roof.

With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day. One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors. In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk. 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.

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. Panels facing north east provide will produce around 5 less electricity than north facing solar panels and their production through the day will be between that of north facing modules and east facing ones. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options.

Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. Why orientation matters with rooftop solar 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. You also can mount solar panels on roofs that face east or west on the roof of another building like a barn or garage or on the ground. Solar arrays that are situated east west can squeeze in more rows and panels and therefore a greater generation capacity than their south or north facing cousins.

Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation. In winter when the sun is at an angle less than the pitch of the roof the panels will receive no sunlight. It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move.