Solar Panel Problems Part 2

My original idea here was to show photos of hopeless solar panel set-ups. But, as is my style, I did a bit of research before I went for it.

One thing you always hear about solar is that your panels should always face south (or as close to as possible).

When you think about it, that makes sense: Panels facing south will see more of the sun than ones facing any other direction.

But how big a difference does, say, an east or west facing set-up actually make? Answer: Around a 20% reduction versus a similar system that faces south.

That's a bit less of hit than I would have imagined. After all, they'd only see the sun for about half the the day time. But, of course, they would see the sun at times a south facing array never would. So, I guess, most of the reduction comes from the sun not being at an ideal elevation some of the time.

Which brings me to the photo. This solar array has 20 panels and faces west. With that 20% reduction I mentioned above, that effectively means they'll only be getting as much electric as a 16 panel, south facing set-up. Put another way, the panels will take a fifth longer to pay back than if they looked south. That could mean 2 or 3 extra years.

Hopefully the solar panel salesperson made all this clear to the buyers and wasn't just thinking of their commission on this £12k to £15k system.

Part 1 here.