Going Solar South Facing Roof

Solar panels are most effective when installed on south facing roofs.

Going solar south facing roof.

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. Many roofs are multi faceted and if your roof is mostly west and east facing you re likely to only see a 10 20 percent reduction in the amount of energy you re generating. In the uk south facing panels will generate more than other orientations. For homes with roofs that face to the south and that have an appropriate pitch for mounting solar panels installing an efficient home solar system is fairly straight forward because both the roof orientation and angle pitch are optimal for harvesting clean energy from the sun.

For north american solar systems facing directly south an azimuth of 180 degrees is ideal. And while there is some indication that facing solar panels to the west can also be. Even though it s true that north facing roofs aren t ideal for solar you still have options. The results backed us up on this theory showing poor.

Not having a south facing roof is not a deal breaker however. One factor that may limit the size of your photovoltaic system is the available surface area of your south facing roof. Solar panels perform at their best when the sun is shining straight on to the panels. Tra sun and snow.

Let s walk you through an average day august 6th to be exact. The closer to horizontal the better it will be for solar. When the sun shines onto the surface at an angle the panel will still generate electricity but it will be less effective. Typically solar panels perform best on south facing roofs with a slope between 15 and 40 degrees though other roofs may be suitable too.

The diagram shows how the sun passes over a house with solar panels on the south and west facing roof surfaces. The sun rises at 5 52 am and begins directly shining on the south facing panels at 8 15. While you will have some challenges to work around there are several alternatives available that will let you go solar despite having a non optimal roof. The direction that your roof faces also referred to as the azimuth angle is the primary factor determining how much sunshine your solar panels will see over the course of the day.

Do you have to have a south facing roof to have solar panels. You should also consider the age of your roof and how long until it will need replacement. 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. The flatter a south facing roof is i e.