My brother has bought a new-build house and the solar panels are facing north. I am wondering if there is a technical or regulatory requirement for solar panels to face towards the sun, or if this is merely public perception. Could the developers say if the output meets the required standard orientation is unimportant? (Scotland)
In England, Building Regulations Part L:
Arguably north-facing panels don't meet L2b.
I don't know my way around the regs in Scotland, but I'm not immediately seeing anything about solar in here:
Theo
Lol, if they don't face the sun they will output very little. I'd be insisting the fitters return & do a functional install, if that's an option. Otherwise it's money down the toilet.
North is the worst possible orientation for solar PV. West and East are a workable combination, as is due South.
Are there any good reasons why the panels are on the North side?
- they'll produce very little power....
Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote
Technical, yep. Works much better that way.
Nope.
There is no such standard.
They can say that, but they would be lying.
There are bifacial panels, that accept light from the back (a little bit) as well as from the front. If your fitters are idiots, the panels have you covered :-/ It was never clear, exactly how you would install a bifacial panel, to "get the most out of it". Maybe on a solar tracker platform (where the panels ride at an angle), there would be an opportunity for rear side ambient light to hit the panel.
Most normal installs, the panels are at a "generic best angle" and they leave it at that. Maybe you want your house roof, to be designed to an angle like this.
This small install in Nunavut, isn't exactly on a steep angle.
I wonder if the wind blows there ? :-)
Paul
Especially as far north as Scotland.
In Scotland it would be better to fit hydro. All that rain running from the roof could drive a small turbine.
Were they retrofitted, or are there other houses in the same street also affected. I remember in the Canary Isles they facing all ways, often mixed, one supposes that was because its a lot closer to the Equator. Using that logic, one would think that the more north you go the more south facing they need to be. It would be interesting to see the output curve for different directions generally plotted against the point in the globe where they are.
Brian
BTW, worth having a chat with the local authority planning department. I think a lot of building control inspections are outsourced to private companies these days, but the planning department should know something about building regs, who signed it off, and under what version of the regs.
Theo
Solar panels have been compulsory for new houses with gas boilers in Scotland for some years. There's a minimum power per square meter of the [usually] ground floor. I don't know how the power is calculated but I think it should have been included in the SAP calculation and that could be a starting point for your brother. (While it is part of the building regulations I expect building control would defer to the SAP assessor.)
Could that just mean that the builders calculate the total area of solar power required and then just install them anywhere? A paper exercise.
Pass.
Pass.
assumed in the calculations for "notional" buildings to arrive at the minimum standard that must be achieved. So there's scope for less PV if more is done one something else - eg insulation.
When it comes to latitude, the further north you are, the bigger the fall in energy production when you turn away from south. All else equal, solar panels in Seattle, WA will see a much bigger output drop in non-south alignment than a home in Miami, FL."
Maybe what happened was a "compass fail" :-)
I see one install here, is fairly non-committal. In this picture, it's hard to tell where North is.
I somehow doubt that.
Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote
That was a joke, Joyce.
He does that quite a bit.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I have spoken to my brother. I think his view is that the fact they are pointing the wrong way (when there is a south facing roof available) is a sufficient argument. Personally, I would be looking for rules or guidance to support the argument.
As I understand it, homeopathic solar panels are often fitted to new builds to improve the property’s energy rating (on paper) without having to do anything useful like putting in serious amounts of insulation in.
Tim
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