The flatter a south facing roof is i e.
Do i put solar panels facing the south.
We designed and modeled the system in helioscope our sales and design software platform.
When the sun shines onto the surface at an angle the panel will still generate electricity but it will be less effective.
The closer to horizontal the better it will be for solar.
Solar panels perform at their best when the sun is shining straight on to the panels.
We start with a typical residential system in charlotte north carolina.
That captures the most solar energy over the course of the day which benefits the homeowner but.
The results backed us up on this theory showing poor.
One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors.
I did a quick check using nrel s pvwatts tool and it looks like in placentia ca there s about a 10 difference in favor of flat south facing panels over east facing panels installed on a 30 pitched roof.
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.
How much worse are north facing solar modules.
Do you have to have a south facing roof to have solar panels.
If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options.
Increase the south facing tilt to 15 and south facing becomes 21 better.
Solar panels facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern facing roof.