Analysis of Suitable Roof Designs for PV Panel: Case Study of Housing Roof in Gorontalo

The demand of PV on roof installation in household sector is increasing. In this paper, an investigation into optimizing the energy performance of PV on housing roof is conducted. Three housing roof designs found in Gorontalo city are selected as the mounting planes for PV on roof. The designs represent a stacked gable roof, a complex gable roof, and a complex hip roof. The purpose of the research is to find which roof shape is better for PV mounting in terms of sun radiation gain and access, mountable spaces, and orientation flexibility. This research employs Rhinoceros 3D to model the three roofs. The models are designed to face 12 directions from 0⁰ to 330⁰. Radiation analysis using Ladybug is utilized to study the roof performance in obtaining solar radiation in all the 12 directions. It is found that the complex hip roof has more evenly distributed solar radiation on the roof planes, flexible for PV mounting in any orientation, but fewer mountable spaces. The stacked gable roof has two out of four suitable planes to gain solar radiation, but they are spacious. The complex gable roof has only one suitable plane since the other surfaces are prone to self-shading. Overall, a stacked gable roof provides a better option for PV installation compared to the other roof shapes.