Which way does your balcony face, and why it decides everything
By Mike YuPublished September 1, 2026
Image needed
A phone held flat on a balcony railing with the compass app open and the heading readable. Shot over the shoulder so the view the panel would have is visible behind it.
Find out in thirty seconds
Stand on the balcony facing out over the railing — the way the panel would look — and open the compass app on your phone.
| Heading | Direction | Annual production, relative to south |
|---|---|---|
| 135°–225° | South | 100% |
| 225°–295° | West | 83% |
| 65°–135° | East | 80% |
| 295°–65° | North | 35% |
Why the difference is this big
The sun crosses the southern sky in California. A panel facing south is pointed at it for the whole arc. A panel facing east catches the morning and then sits in its own shadow; west catches the afternoon and misses the morning. North faces away from the sun's path entirely and lives on scattered light.
Nothing about the equipment changes this. A better panel facing north still faces north.
Chart description
A day from 5am to 9pm. A west-facing panel's output rises through the morning, peaks around 3pm, and falls to nothing by early evening. The utility's most expensive hours, 4pm–9pm, are shaded behind it and begin after production has largely finished.
Why west often beats south in practice
Two reasons the raw production numbers don't capture.
When you're home. A west-facing panel produces from noon through the late afternoon and into early evening. That overlaps with when people get home, turn things on, and start using electricity. A south-facing panel's peak is at solar noon, when a lot of homes are empty and half the production is exported for nothing.
What the power is worth. If you're on a time-of-use rate plan — which most SCE customers now are — electricity between 4pm and 9pm costs far more than electricity at 11am. SCE's TOU-D-4-9PM plan runs about 24 cents off-peak and around 58 cents on summer weekday peak. A west-facing panel does more of its work inside the expensive window.
Run those together and a west balcony in a household on TOU with someone home from 4pm often returns more money than a south balcony in an empty flat, even though it produces 17 percent less power.
Tilt is worth more than an extra panel
| How it's mounted | Factor | 800W kit in Irvine, west, someone home |
|---|---|---|
| Hanging flat against the railing, vertical | 0.62 | ~$162/yr |
| Laid flat on a patio floor | 0.88 | ~$230/yr |
| Angled toward the sun, roughly 25–35° | 1.00 | ~$262/yr |
Estimated at SCE's 33.2-cent rate. Full working.
A tilt bracket costs $40 to $90. Going from vertical to angled on that 800-watt kit is worth about $100 a year — the bracket pays back inside a year and keeps paying.
Compare that to adding a third panel: another $250 to $350 of hardware for maybe $60 a year. Tilt first, always.
The practical constraint is that a tilted panel sticks out. On a balcony railing it can project into the walkway or out past the building line, which may be exactly what your HOA or your lease objects to. A modest tilt — even 15 degrees — recovers a good share of the benefit and is much easier to get approved.
Shade beats direction
A perfect south aspect with the neighbouring building blocking the sky from 2pm is worse than a clear west one.
Panels are unforgiving about partial shade. Because of how cells are wired, shading part of a panel can cut its output disproportionately — a branch across one corner does more damage than you'd guess from the area covered.
How to assess it without equipment: stand where the panel would go and look out at the sky. Do it at 10am, 1pm and 4pm on a clear day if you can be bothered; once at 1pm if you can't. What you want is a wide, open arc. What kills you is a building opposite, the balcony above yours, or a mature tree.
If the obstruction is the balcony above, moving the panel outward or lower can help more than you'd expect. If it's a tree, trimming is cheap. If it's a twelve-storey building, that's your answer.
If you're facing north
Don't buy the standard product. Instead, check whether you have any other surface at all:
- Another window or wall on a different side of the building.
- A patio or ground-level spot if you're on the first floor.
- A parking space fence, if your building allows it.
- A shared yard corner, with the landlord's agreement.
People find spots. A panel doesn't have to be on the balcony — it has to be within cord reach of an outlet and pointed somewhere sensible.
If there's genuinely nothing, this isn't your purchase. There's no shame in that and we'd rather say it.
Sources
Every legal, numeric and safety claim on this page traces to one of these.
- NREL PVWatts Calculator — accessed September 1, 2026