Let’s be honest. Some houses are a better fit for solar than others. There are a few factors to consider when assessing a property’s suitability for PV production, which we will go over here.

Orientation

In the northern hemisphere, ideal sun exposure occurs on south facing roofs at a tilt angle of 30°-45°. A south facing roof captures the sun’s entire path throughout the day as it moves from east to west. Therefore, the ideal surface for panels is a fairly steep south facing roof.

If South facing roof area is not an option, the next best orientation is east and west. These pitches will still capture the full day’s sun exposure and result in fantastic solar production.

North Facing: Some companies sell homeowners panels on north facing roofs, but we refuse. The production loss due to poor orientation is simply not worth the investment.

Shade/Sun Exposure

In Virginia Beach and the surrounding areas, we have some heavily wooded areas. Thus, shade can certainly limit a home’s sun exposure in some cases. Google has a fantastic tool called Project Sunroof that allows homeowners to type in their address and determine their annual sun exposure. For reference, the best case scenario in Virginia Beach would be about 1,680 “hours of useable sunlight each year”. This would be a south facing roof with absolutely zero shading. Acceptable values would be 1450-1680 “hours of useable sunlight each year”.

Roof Area

To maximize the number of panels that can fit on a house, the best roofs are single elevation. Think of a ranch with a long roof with very few architectural details like valleys and hips. While we can certainly work with more intricate roof lines, it is best to keep large arrays of panels together on a nice open area of roof.