Solar Panel Efficiency On North South Facing Roof

If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options.

Solar panel efficiency on north south facing roof.

As an example a roof facing due south in brisbane will receive almost as much sunlight as a north facing roof in hobart. 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. Darwin and far north queensland. An ideal south facing roof here is pitched at 7 12 39ish degrees and the north side of that roof will produce less than half as much electricity.

If you live in a tropical area your solar panels will be to the north or to the south of the sun depending on the season. 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. Solar panels are most effective when installed on south facing roofs. The sun rises at 5 52 am and begins directly shining on the south facing panels at 8 15.

Adding modules on the north side of the roof will not add much bang for the customer s solar buck and would qualify as solar malpractice in my book. Solar panels facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern facing roof. One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors. Let s walk you through an average day august 6th to be exact.

Not discussed here is the case for going solar in the tropics e g.