Solar panel facing east or north?

[stealthnhawk]

Hi everyone,
I am currently looking to install solar panel by Tesla. I would like to ask for some advice.
Attached picture is the proposal plan by Tesla.
I live in San Jose, CA. On the east side of my house is a mountain/hill. I have a few concerns on the panels on the east side (circled in yellow):
1) since there’s a mountain in east side, those panels might not get all the sun lights in the early morning.
2) the roof of that location is kind of steep slope so I won’t get as good sun light in the evening. Like today, that side of the roof doesn’t get sunlight after 5ish which there’s a lot of sunlight outside still.
3) there’s a fireplace/chimney that goes up and could block 1 or half panel I supposed some of the duration.
So my question is for the panel circled in yellow, would it be better to move the the circle area in red color which is north side? It seems north side of the roof, it get sunlight for much longer duration since the roof is more flat (less slope than east side).
I’ve talked to the Tesla design online, and they’ve said that they don’t recommend placing north. Placing on east is better.

Please help provide some advice if possible so I can decide if I should go forward to the current plan or change.
Thanks all

 

[davidwpb]

Go to PVWatts Calculator. You can put in the roof slopes (there is a conversion guide if you hit the "i" next to slope) and orientation (north vs east). I would just put in 1kw or 10kw system and run the calc on north and east, then compare the production per year. I used that on my house to determine the north gets 80% and east/west get 90% vs south being baseline of 100%. If the mountains are a mile away and you have a steeper slope, you will likely get better production on the east. While the north roof has more hours in the sun, its not as direct and the east will likely generate more energy in any given year.

 

[Cosanchez]

google PVwatts and play with your roof pitch and azimuth (0 for N, 90 for east). I think you will find East facing panels are always better than North Panels - even if you have some shading. Also East panels that are steep sloped are OK due to the position of the Sun in the sky. So I expect you will always be better off than N facing panels

Wht Telsla panels? Did you quote out panasonic or sunpower. It think Tesla is licensing or buying panels from panasonic, so you may want to cross shop to see if you got a good price

Your west facing roof is your best option, especially as CA utilities move the peak power rates to later in the afternoon. You really wan to get high efficiency panels on your west facing roof to maximize your production late in the afternoon

 

[stealthnhawk]

Thanks all for your reply. I guess I should talk to them if they can move some panels to the empty space on the west side of the cluster circled in yellow. That’s also a steep slope facing west. It gets really good sunlight to evening.

They have quoted me with solar edge inverter and q antum panels. I have attached the panel information. I need to do research to see how it is compared to Panasonic or LG.

 

[davidwpb]

They quoted me the same panels this week with Delta inverters.

 

[stealthnhawk]

So just found out from Tesla today that with Hanwha panel, it will look flush as shown on Tesla website. If going with Panasonic, it will look like tradition solar panel. Can someone confirm this?
Also, it seems Hanwha g5 has 12 yr warranty. So the Panasonic is SC315B2 which has 15 yr warranty. It seems tes

I guess I need to confirm about the mounting.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So just found out from Tesla today that with Hanwha panel, it will look flush as shown on Tesla website. If going with Panasonic, it will look like tradition solar panel. Can someone confirm this?
Also, it seems Hanwha g5 has 12 yr warranty. So the Panasonic is SC315B2 which has 15 yr warranty. It seems tes

I guess I need to confirm about the mounting.

No matter which panels they use, they should be able to use the side skirts to make the installation look better. Also, Tesla should be able to give you quotes for different brands panels of panels.

 

[boriszima]

Hi everyone,
I am currently looking to install solar panel by Tesla. I would like to ask for some advice.
Attached picture is the proposal plan by Tesla.
I live in San Jose, CA. On the east side of my house is a mountain/hill. I have a few concerns on the panels on the east side (circled in yellow):
1) since there’s a mountain in east side, those panels might not get all the sun lights in the early morning.
2) the roof of that location is kind of steep slope so I won’t get as good sun light in the evening. Like today, that side of the roof doesn’t get sunlight after 5ish which there’s a lot of sunlight outside still.
3) there’s a fireplace/chimney that goes up and could block 1 or half panel I supposed some of the duration.
So my question is for the panel circled in yellow, would it be better to move the the circle area in red color which is north side? It seems north side of the roof, it get sunlight for much longer duration since the roof is more flat (less slope than east side).
I’ve talked to the Tesla design online, and they’ve said that they don’t recommend placing north. Placing on east is better.

Please help provide some advice if possible so I can decide if I should go forward to the current plan or change.
Thanks all

You can join this site https://pvoutput.org and compare your outputs to nearby with the same/similar system setup. I did that to see how my system is doing compared to others. It helps if delta is big to know something is off such as bad panels or dirt. If you connect your system to here, you will be able to see trends in your own system as well.