north or west facing pv setup

[rgormley]

i have a 1200 watt pv system up on the roof but it on the west facing side,

what kind of difference would i get if it put it on the north facing roof side

would it be worth the movement of the array?

i`m in melbourne australia (altona meadows) for those interested....

12v system

[disaray1]

Head north young man!

 David

[wpowokal]

Oh $#|+ no head west, jobs abound, oh solar panels, er..... north is the direction. There again Melborne, all 4 seasons in one day, every day, oh!!! still north.

Better still track them.

allan down under but on the other side

[GaryGary]

Hi,

PVWatts gives the following for Melborne:

North facing:  4.74 KWH/ sqm  per day average for the year

West facing: 3.77

1 Axis Tracking: 5.58

So, on yearly output it looks like north facing would give a 26% improvement.

This assumes a 38 degree tilt in both cases.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/

Gary

[rgormley]

gary, thanks!!

yikes i did not think by me "noticing where the sun was shining"  rather that following the standard "north" guide would increase my solar wattage collection by 25% thats a huge increase.

hhhmmmmm now to se if it all will fit on that section of roof (smaller than the west facing roof)