Solar On North 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 on north facing roof. Go west young one. This means that they won t sit flush with your roof and will still produce relatively little electricity. While it is technically possible to install solar panels on the north side of your roof they need to be mounted so that they oppose the roof s slant in order to generate electricity. The tilt of the roof matters a great deal.

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. It s possible to mount solar panels so that they oppose the slant of your roof though this solution may not be as aesthetically pleasing as they won t sit flush. On a north facing roof at 25 7 that would be 5 362. I ve taken a close look at the roof angle 23deg and sun angles through the months where we would actually need the heat and am fairly confident in the benefits.

The chart below will give you an idea of how the solar pv production reduces depending on your roof orientation and tilt. With a 2 12 pitched roof 9 5 tilt the south facing array will produce 1 361 kwh kwp. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it our only available roof space is north facing due to our pv solar on the south roof. Not great to be sure but probably not as bad as you might expect.

However the economics of installing solar panels on a roof that does not face the south still usually stack up for the homeowner. Solar panels that face north west will produce around 5 less electricity overall than north facing panels. But on a north facing roof with a shallow pitch say 3 in 12 or 14 production would be 6 234 kwh year or 16 higher though still nearly 25 less than the ideal tilt on a south facing roof. They produce slightly more electricity during the afternoon and slightly less in the morning.

Even if you have a north facing roof you still have some solar options. That optimal tilt will make you an estimated 7 732 kwh in a year from 5 5 kw of solar panels. But what if you don t have a suitable south facing roof. A solar array can be mounted somewhere other than a home s roof it can be installed on a shade free area of the ground or on the roof or wall of another building such as a garage or shed.

Generally this isn t the best solution since these panels still won t yield much energy. Their electricity production through the day will be between that of north and facing panels and that of west facing panels. 1 alternative mounting location. A north facing array on that same building will produce 1 145 kwh kwp a difference of 16 compared to the south facing array.