I'm planning to build a new house in southeast Michigan in the next year and I have a dilemma with the orientation of the house. I know that south-facing windows are best for maximum efficiency, and I know that solar panels need to face south as well. I'd like to build a chalet-style cabin (picture attached) which has most of its windows on one side, and it would obviously make sense to have those windows face south. However, with this house design, having the windows face south would make the roof line run north to south (making the roof itself face east and west, making roof solar panels impossible). So I have to choose between making the windows face south, or making the roof face south for solar panels. If the roof faced south, the windows would face east instead, which I've read is better than west but still not great for energy efficiency. I know ground solar mounts are an option, which would be possible because I'm building in a spacious rural area. But my understanding is that ground mounted solar can be significantly more expensive...but maybe it's worth it in this case? Any advice for how I should orient this house? Thanks!

East and West facing solar is not a deal breaker. Especially if the roof slope isn't that bad. You likely will be DTE where they pay back only ~70% of what you feed back into the grid for net metering.

With this roof line you will be lengthening your production time thus minimizing your DTE net metering losses. Might want to do the math on cost.

Do not use Power Home Solar, they are nothing but problems.

I did a solar pergola for us but also have some east and west facing ground solar.

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/pergola-with-flat-roof.25760/#post-304830

There is some pictures or ours in this thread.

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/positioning-solar-panels-for-non-south-illumination.22904/#post-269985

East West facing panels....

South facing windows are going to give you great heating in the winter and in my opinion provide lots of savings. We have a 24x15 wall of windows that is directly south. The sun reaches in side the house by almost 30 feet. The only problem you might have is over heating, we don't because the whole house is an open floor plan and the heat moves around very good and we have lots of mass to store the heat (ICF house and concrete heated floors throughout both floors).

Perhaps checkout the free passive solar heating design info and associated free DIY calculators on our website sometime. East facing windows are tolerable...west facing windows are problematic. Ground mounting solar panels is by far the best way to accomplish photovoltaic solar. Roof mounting solar panels is problematic because of future panel and roof maintenance and should only be considered if it is the ONLY option...and maybe not even then... BuildItSolar.com is a great source of information for all things Solar.

I'm having solar panels installed on my tiny home. I spent a long time trying to work out how to retain heat for long periods of time. In the end, I've decided to significantly reduce the size of my home to maximise heat distribution. It was the only thing that could ensure my winters would be comfortable! I'm really happy with the decision to live minimally. Hoping to be in the home by the end of the year.