Solar Panels East West Facing Roof

At higher pitches the difference increases.

Solar panels east west facing roof.

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. At lower pitches say 30 the east west facing panels perform slightly closer to south. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation.

That s much better than most people would guess and even an east west facing roof can generate around 80 of the maximum. In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk. 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. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine.

An example of a south west facing roof. Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions. We assumed a 40 elevation for the roof. They would then be in the shade during the first half of the day.

Put your panels on the west roof and take as much sun as you can in the evenings. 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. 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. If you went with a professional solar installer they probably had a good reason to install panels facing east rather than west.

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. Split your array in two and put half on the east and half on the west although arguably you would get similar results to the above two options. Technically east facing panels can get as much sun as west facing ones as long as there are no other issues like morning fog or clouds or shade. One of the stipulations in the rebate requirements was that the solar panels could be faced no more than 70 degrees from true south and this client s roof had an east west orientation as well as being covered in concrete tiles.

Updated may 18 2020.