Solar Panels On East West Facing Roof

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.

Solar panels on east west facing roof.

If you went with a professional solar installer they probably had a good reason to install panels facing east rather than west. Solar arrays that are situated east west can squeeze in more rows and panels and therefore a greater generation capacity than their south or north facing cousins. In winter when the sun is at an angle less than the pitch of the roof the panels will receive no sunlight. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine.

In contrast a north southern hemisphere facing roof gets sunshine from dawn to dusk. With east or west facing panels the sun will be behind the roof for half the day. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. 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.

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 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.