Factors that Affect How Much your Solar System can Produce
There are a few factors that can affect how much electricity your solar system can produce. They can range from the design of the panel and inverter to the position of the system and environmental effects.
If you’ve bought a good quality system and it’s been installed correctly, the main factors that will affect how much electricity you produce are:
- System orientation
- Shading
- Whether it is cloudy or rainy
- Seasons
- Temperature
System Orientation
One of the most important factors affecting the production of your solar system is the pitch and orientation of your solar panels. For example, a west-facing system will peak later in the day which will give you more solar power when you get home from work, whereas an east-facing system gives peak power in the morning.
Another way that orientation can affect your electricity production is the seasonal variation. There is the least seasonal variation if your system is orientated due south with a pitch equal to the latitude of the location they are installed. If you move away from this orientation, it will increase your variation, so you could end up with higher summers and lower winters.
Shading
You should try to avoid having trees or other large objects shading your solar system as it will reduce the amount of electricity it can produce. You might be able to get away with having some shading in the early morning or late afternoon, but shading across the panels at midday will seriously affect your electricity production.
The Weather
It’s obvious, but your solar panels won’t produce as much electricity if it is cloudy and raining.
Seasons
As you would expect, solar panels will be able to produce more electricity in the summer when the sun is higher and is out for longer periods. The further you get from the equator, the bigger the difference between summer and winter there will be.
Temperature
Although solar panels produce electricity through sunlight, not heat, the temperature does still have an effect. In fact, a solar panel works less efficiently when it is very hot, which is great for the UK. On the occasional days where we have a summer heatwave, you’ll find that your solar panels will work better at 11am than 1pm, because the solar panels will be cooler at 11am. This is despite the fact that they might still be getting the same amount of sunlight.