Debating on a having part of my solar panels 6 out of 20 facing west to catch some sun in the winter or b am i better off making more sun all facing south and banking that extra power made in a partial credit from the electric company for use in the winter time.
South west facing roof solar panels.
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.
The flatter a south facing roof is i e.
Let s walk you through an average day august 6th to be exact.
An example of a south west facing roof.
At higher pitches the difference increases.
The sun rises at 5 52 am and begins directly shining on the south facing panels at 8 15.
At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south.
The diagram shows how the sun passes over a house with solar panels on the south and west facing roof surfaces.
Hi i live in hawaii 96740 and have a south facing roof.
Even with this decrease in performance solar panels will produce enough electricity to save you hundreds of dollars a year.
Here s a quick example of a south west facing roof in london.
We also took at look at a tilt angle of 40 for the south facing orientations mainly just to show that a south facing roof with a steep pitch is probably not a good place for solar panels.
I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels.
We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof.
Why orientation matters with rooftop solar.