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Solar Panel Direction: Must Your Solar Panels Face South?
Must Your Solar Panels Face to the South?
Where should your home’s solar panels point? Before technological innovation in solar installation technology, only one solar panel direction was deemed best: the South in the Northern Hemisphere. What is the rationale behind your solar panels facing the South? In answering, we must consider the sun’s positioning. The sun is most intense over the equator, where it shines for most of the year. Therefore, with your solar panels facing the South, you are assured of better sun harvesting and an efficient supply of solar energy.
Solar energy installation poses unique challenges majorly attributed to the way houses orient to the sun. Installers must carefully survey and nail a perfect position where the panels will attract the most sunlight and turn it to electrical energy. The bottom line is to ensure that homeowners have an alternative electricity supply resulting in lower power bills translating to savings.
Solar Panel Direction & Net Metering
Solar panels that face Southwards offer another benefit for homeowners; they expose you to net metering. Through net metering, homeowners can send back excess power to the local grid and get a reimbursement. South-oriented panels are advantageous in two ways. Firstly, they harvest most of the solar energy around mid-day, and that is when you have plenty of sunshine. Secondly, household power consumption at this time is low since most occupants are away, having gone to school or off to work.
Alternative Solar Panel Direction
However, owing to a host of other variables, Southern orientation is not always possible. Thankfully Go Solar Power installers have solutions to these challenges. We carry out a home survey as the first step towards a successful solar panel installation. Obstacles such as tall buildings, power lines, chimneys, and trees are likely to block sunlight. Nonetheless, residences constructed near these obstacles can still produce the desired solar power. However, you may require additional solar panels to achieve the optimum output.
Time of Use Rates
At Go Solar Power, we acquaint ourselves with rules and regulations that apply to our clientele localities. Some of these restrictions influence the direction solar panels should face. More so, some local regulations hamper net metering much to the detriment of homeowners. Changes in Californian energy regulations, popularly referred to as TOU (Time of Use) rates in 2017, are an excellent example.
Before introducing TOU rates, residents enjoyed a fixed reimbursement rate for power sent back to the power grid. Whether you generated excess power at mid-day or in the early evening, the reimbursement rate remained constant. Solar customers could now make money off net metering from excess power sent back in the evening following the changes. How do these changes affect homeowners and solar panel orientation? To catch more evening sunlight, panels must point to the West and not the South.
Solar Power Efficiency
Solar power efficiency is another critical aspect that guides Go Solar Power experts. Realistically, by deploying highly efficient panels, you end up utilizing fewer units and enjoy cost savings in the process. Another benefit is that Go Solar Power is a Tesla Powerwall installer, the world’s leading maintenance-free backup system that recharges with sunlight, requires no fuel, has a streamlined design, and attracts a 26% federal tax credit.Â
Our company also sells Enphase, the leading solar power inverter globally. Enphase systems comprise microinverters, with each panel operating independently such that if one fails, the rest are not affected. Solar panels are interconnected to form a system that uses either micro or conventional inverters. Microinverters are superior to conventional variants. In the latter, a single panel’s failure affects the entire system.
Harnessing Solar Power Direction
An efficient harnessing of solar power requires installing solar panels around obstacles. However, that is a complex task. Go Solar Power simplifies installation work in three steps, design customization, creating a savings plan, and a five-star installation. Our experts customize a design and walk you through the process while answering all queries you might have. After that, we develop and share with you a low-cost plan while also assisting with all permit acquisitions. Finally, we install and interconnect the system to your local grid and enable net metering.Â
Go Solar Power
Go Solar Power is a family owned operation instilling family values within the company. Honesty, Integrity, Reliability, and a Do the Right Thing mentality permeates among the employees.
