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  • bonbon
    Junior Member
    • Aug 2017
    • 12

    #1

    Mix and match layouts?

    Due to the orientation of the house, the south facing roof plane/surface (side of the house) cannot accommodate all the panels. Here is an example of how our roof looks:



    When I say roof plane/surface, I mean the individual sections in the roof.

    So in the design, some of the panels are in the back roof of the house. The problem is due to narrow valley in the back, they can only be installed in vertical orientation. Thankfully you cannot see both the roofs together. So is that considered acceptable industry practice? I really don't like this mix and match of orientations. I was wondering if anyone else had this unique situation and how they overcame it?
    Last edited by bonbon; 09-19-2017, 11:57 AM.
  • J.P.M.
    Solar Fanatic
    • Aug 2013
    • 15015

    #2
    In general, the more southerly the panels are, the more electricity they will make. That's not an absolute mamdate as +/- 20-30 deg. off south will see a somewaht minor penalty. Even east and west are not out of the question as for practicality. Just avoid northerly panel orientations, and know that high tilt angles and north facing is sort of the kiss of death as far as cost effective PV electrical production is concerned.

    Run PVWatts for a 1 kW array at various azimuths and various tilts to see the effects on output.

    Comment

    • ButchDeal
      Solar Fanatic
      • Apr 2014
      • 3802

      #3
      Originally posted by bonbon
      Due to the orientation of the house, the south facing roof panel (side of the house) cannot accommodate all the panels. So in the design some of the panels are in the back roof of the house. The problem is due to narrow valley in the back, they can only be installed in vertical orientation. Thankfully you cannot see both the roofs together. So is that considered acceptable industry practice? I really don't like this mix and match of orientations. I was wondering if anyone else had this unique situation and how the overcame it?
      BTW, You are mixing two different meanings for the word panel.

      Portrait or Vertical is the more common layout and saves on rails.
      Landscape or horizontal uses more rails and some modules (not so much any more) are not warrantied for this layout.

      They are mixed often to try to fit even on the same roof face. If done well they can blend together and be difficult to spot, though I have seen some poor layouts.
      OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

      Comment

      • bonbon
        Junior Member
        • Aug 2017
        • 12

        #4
        Originally posted by ButchDeal

        BTW, You are mixing two different meanings for the word panel.

        Portrait or Vertical is the more common layout and saves on rails.
        Landscape or horizontal uses more rails and some modules (not so much any more) are not warrantied for this layout.

        They are mixed often to try to fit even on the same roof face. If done well they can blend together and be difficult to spot, though I have seen some poor layouts.
        Thank you for your response. I have now updated my post to reflect correct terminology. I guess the answer is it can be done, it may not look great if somehow you can see them together.

        Comment

        • NEOH
          Solar Fanatic
          • Nov 2010
          • 478

          #5
          Will you be using micro-inverters or 2 strings with a central inverter ?

          Comment

          • foo1bar
            Solar Fanatic
            • Aug 2014
            • 1833

            #6
            Originally posted by bonbon
            Due to the orientation of the house, the south facing roof plane/surface (side of the house) cannot accommodate all the panels. Here is an example of how our roof looks:



            When I say roof plane/surface, I mean the individual sections in the roof.

            So in the design, some of the panels are in the back roof of the house. The problem is due to narrow valley in the back, they can only be installed in vertical orientation. Thankfully you cannot see both the roofs together. So is that considered acceptable industry practice? I really don't like this mix and match of orientations. I was wondering if anyone else had this unique situation and how they overcame it?
            Usually solar modules (panels) are installed in a portrait orientation and parallel to the roof deck (on a normal sloped residential roof)
            That doesn't mean they have to be though.

            On my garage, facing ESE, I have both portrait and landscape oriented modules. A row of landscape above a row of portrait. There isn't room for two rows of portrait.
            I have 4 other groups of modules. One also points ESE, two groups point SSW and one group points WNW.
            To get best performance out of these different orientations (and handle the shading I have) I have a solaredge system. That does a per-optimizer (per-module) max-power-point tracking so it can handle the different orientations and different shading per module.

            Comment

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