Do Solar Panels Have To Face South

In the southern hemisphere facing the north is ideal.

Do solar panels have to face south. North is the only direction that we don t want to put panels on. Does my house have to face south for solar to work. However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west. On a flat roof if the orientation of the building is not strictly n s then you have the option of making panels face south.

North now that s a problem. We can install panels on south east or west facing roofs. Because if panels are not in the same direction as the orientation of the building then they will take up more space on the roof. In the northern hemisphere the sun crosses the sky a little to the south which means putting solar panels on a south facing roof is the best way for homeowners to capture the most solar energy.

Solar panels convert light into dc electricity. Although doing this only brings about a 3 improvement in energy collection it will be a big deal if your solar array is huge or your extreme condition requires getting as much energy conversion as possible. Go west young one. The sun doesn t have to be beaming directly on the panels at the perfect angle to work.

See image below for illustration. Well when it comes to solar panels west is second best. Many people ask the question why do solar panels face south a fundamental fact many people are aware of is that the sun rises in the east and sets toward the west. Solar panels usually face south because that s where they receive the most solar radiation or sunlight.

Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine. In the northern hemisphere the best direction to face solar panels is south since that is generally where they receive the most sunlight. Assuming you ve got good subsidies net metering and good sun it s still going to be very cost effective for you. But what if you don t have a suitable south facing roof.

This fact was further emphasized by the 1991 disney film beauty and the beast when céline dion and peabo bryson sang the lines certain as the sun rising in the east. Solar panels should face south for any home in america to obtain maximum power generation. This is a good action if you have enough space on the rooftop. This is so that you can expose your solar panels to as much light as possible to optimize their energy production.

The short answer is no. Plenty of systems get installed on western systems and eastern and south eastern etc. In any pv system related project we tend to set up solar panels to face the solar south rather than the magnetic south.