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4) PANELS SHOULD FACE WEST
This one comes from our friends in the
incumbent power business establishment
and is rubbish. Systems should face any way
that maximises production and benefits
the customer. So if a customer isn’t home
in the evening, then western facing panels
may not be of that much benefit in lowering
their personal power bill via maximising
self-consumption. Although I think west-
facing panels are perfectly fine for most
people, it’s not a law that anyone should be
following religiously.
If power distributors want to run around
pushing this myth on the solar industry and
customers alike they could offer additional
feed-in-tariffs to encourage it. But they don’t.
The power companies are just spreading
FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt – tomake
people feel like they’re doing something
wrong or unfair as a result of their north or east
facing systems. Yet these people have invested
their ownmoney to help fight climate change
and contribute to reducing wholesale power
prices to the benefit of other customers and
to the detriment of polluting fossil fuel power
stations. This is something to feel good about.
5) YOU CAN’T PUT PANELS
FACING SOUTH
This one’s a biggy. I was previously in the
trap also of criticising systems that were
oriented south, south-west or south-east.
Actually they’re great. They’re great if the
north, east and west already have panels,
as they help enhance self-consumption of
solar output. They’re also great if installing
on the northern roof is complicated and
would necessitate a very expensive install. If
you were comparing, say, a system on the
north costing $1.30 or more per Watt due
to complications (split arrays, need for DC
optimisers/micro-inverters), but could get a
system in for $1 per Watt on the south, then
the financials end up about the same and
you could conceivably afford to install 30%
more panels on the south that would make
up for the loss of power output.
The south facing system is also a good
match for self-consumption in summer.
And in diffuse light (when it’s cloudy) it
should contribute as much as a north facing
panel. That’s assuming 5-30º incline on the
south facing roof in Melbourne. As you go
further north from Melbourne, the option
of installing on the south gives better and
better results.
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