However solar panels can be orientated on any roof that faces south of either east or west.
Solar panel efficiency on north south facing roof.
Not discussed here is the case for going solar in the tropics e g.
As an example a roof facing due south in brisbane will receive almost as much sunlight as a north facing roof in hobart.
The diagram shows how the sun passes over a house with solar panels on the south and west facing roof surfaces.
Therefore directions like southwest or southeast are fine.
Adding modules on the north side of the roof will not add much bang for the customer s solar buck and would qualify as solar malpractice in my book.
Darwin and far north queensland.
An ideal south facing roof here is pitched at 7 12 39ish degrees and the north side of that roof will produce less than half as much electricity.
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 facing east or west won t get as much light as those on a southern facing roof.
Solar panels are most effective when installed on south facing roofs.
If your roof faces east west rather than north south you have a few options.
One solution is to compensate by increasing the solar collector area either using more panels or larger collectors.
Let s walk you through an average day august 6th to be exact.