Where Should Solar Panels Be Placed

If you are trying to install solar panels on a steep roof it may not be possible to place panels at the optimal tilt with traditional racking systems.

Where should solar panels be placed.

If ground or wall mounted panels don t work for you solar panels can also be mounted on a building near your house like your garage or a storage shed. This will result in an output similar to north west facing panels. 5 hours x 290 watts an example wattage of a premium solar panel 1 450 watts hours or roughly 1 5 kilowatt hours kwh. How much energy does a solar panel produce.

The maximum energy production is achieved at midday when the sun reaches its maximum altitude on the horizon. However pitch angles between 30 and 45 degrees will work well in most situations. Your life would be much easier if you could just find out what angle is the optimal solar panel angle in your city or county. For the sake of example if you are getting 5 hours of direct sunlight per day in a sunny state like california you can calculate your solar panel output this way.

Every home is unique and it s best to speak with an expert in solar to understand where solar panels should be placed on your roof. Ideally a fixed roof mounted solar energy system should be at an angle that is equal to the latitude of the location where it is installed. It is even possible to have solar panels facing in more than two directions. Ground mounted solar panels can even be placed on trackers which adjust the position of the panels throughout the year in order to maximize the amount of sunlight reaching them.

Solar panel angle by zip code. As i said earlier the more a solar panel is perpendicular to the sun s rays the more it produces electricity. Skip to 12 15 to hear rex and patrick discuss the main solar solutions for different kinds of flat roofing. Outside of tou the biggest factors that influence the direction of your solar panels are shading and other obstructions that impact the panel s exposure to light.

So instead of asking whether you can install solar panels anywhere you want the better question you should ask is where and how your panels should be placed to achieve the benefits that you want. Overall the angle of your rooftop has less impact on solar panel performance than the direction your roof faces. Thus the output for each solar panel in your array would. We therefore need to know during the year the maximum and minimum altitude of the sun at midday in order to discover how many degrees our panels have to be tilted.

Solar panel installers are presented with a number of challenges when designing and installing flat roof solar panels. Many roofs are going to have slopes between 30 and 40 degrees which means that solar panels can lie flush against the roof and produce enough electricity for attractive returns. The table below features a solar panel angle by zip code for at least one city from every state.