Should Solar Panels Face South

According to the concord consortium makers of energy3d solar energy modeling software a home in boston ma with panels that face west would get 80 of the electricity that a house with south facing.

Should solar panels face south.

That captures the most solar energy over the course of the day which benefits the homeowner but. Solar south or geographic south. South facing panels produced a 54 percent peak reduction overall while west facing solar pv panels produced a 65 percent peak reduction. While the angle of your solar panels is important a more important factor in your energy production is going to be the direction your panels face.

West facing solar panels get less sun than those that face south but it s not as little as you may think. This is so that you can expose your solar panels to as much light as possible to optimize their energy production. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine.

Now all of this is very important for utilities and legislators who are in charge of offering incentives for solar power or other measures that could reduce electricity demand at the height of the day. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation. True south can also be calculated at noon when shadows from vertical objects run north south. This being the case the general best practice to date has always been to position solar panels facing south in order to capture the maximum amount of sunlight overall.

For years homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south. By the same reasoning if the solar panel is located in the southern hemisphere the panel should instead face in the direction of true north. To correct the compass reading your solar installer will calculate the magnetic declination of your site. Solar panels however need to face solar or geographic south which is the direction towards the south pole.

For those who are not part of a tou model with their utility company the direction that you want to face your solar panels is south. For the best results solar panels should be oriented towards the south. This is because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky in the northern hemisphere. Generally it s common knowledge in the solar industry that these south facing panels should be tilted between a 30 and 40 degree angle.

However each of the above only considers.