Where to place the solar panels for your solar hot water

Solar hot water is an environmentally and economically friendly way to give you what you need in terms of warm water for your household. Purchasing the solar cells and mounting them are basically the only things in this process that require that you spend money on your hot water needs. However, there are a lot of things you need to consider when getting solar hot water for your home. One of the most important decisions you'll have to make is where to mount your solar cells for optimal functionality, without the cells being a nuisance physically. In order to decide where to place your solar cells, there are a few things you should think about.

Placement on roof

The roof is typically where people decide to install their solar cells. It's high up enough to not risk being overshadowed by other structures, and this placement also keeps them out of your way. However, roof mounted solar panels can have disadvantages as well. The first thing you need to examine is whether or not your roof is equipped to hold the weight of the panels. You can find this out by hiring a building inspector to inspect the load bearing capacities of your roof. Another issue with placing the solar panels on the roof might be that your building isn't facing the ideal direction to get as much sun as possible.

The walls

Another option for where to place your solar panels for your solar hot water is the walls to your house. Walls are in many cases not ideal because of how they are completely vertical. This could, however, be solved by tilting the solar panels out from the wall. The major advantage of placing solar panels on your walls is that it's much simpler to find the perfect placement with the most amount of sun per day than if you placed the panels on your roof.

Building for the purpose

Another solution that is quite popular is to build a separate structure to place your solar panels on. Building a simple shed with a reinforced roof will give you the opportunity to find the best placement and angle for your solar panels. The downsides of this solution is that a shed can be in your way as you're working or just walking about on your property. It could also become a rather expensive solution, as you will have to pay for the building materials as well as the solar panels. If you choose to hire a builder to build the shed, you will also have to pay for labour. 

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