Solar Panels On East West Facing Roof

It really depends on your home and your roof but adding panels to an unshaded west facing roof can be a great move.

Solar panels on east west facing roof.

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. 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. 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. For example an east facing roof will be exposed to sunlight in the morning whereas a west facing roof will take in more sunlight in the afternoon and evenings.

We are looking at installing a 5kw system lg neon 2 panels and fornius inverter on a double storey house and had initially thought of splitting the panels between our north east and west facing roofs so that we got production over most of the day 8 panels north 4 east and 4 west. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. 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. 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.

Of course you cannot install east west facing solar panels on your roof if it does not already slant in those directions. I would be grateful for any thoughts suggestions on the direction to face solar panels.