They should be on southfacing roof. I see lots of houses in my neighborhood where panels are on west and even east, have never seen on north. It is my understanding that if you use the other directions you will either have to run your system longer to keep water warm and that the water will just never get as hot as it would on South. If you live in a really hot climate during the summer, your water may get plenty hot on other sides. I would think the second choice would be west so that as the sun sets your water will be warmer in the later part of day when most folks are home to use it. Good luck.

Definitely not on the north side! They would always be in the shade. (Assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere, of course) They can also be on the ground against a fence or a side of the house if you have the room. People get pretty creative trying to balance aesthetics and effectiveness, but you have to work with that all-important southern exposure. Or there is a pool deck that has solar panels worked into it. Never actually seen one, but have read about them.

This is a pretty good calculator.
Boby

Here is a link that might be useful: simple calculator.

Heliocol makes panels in a color other than black (sandstone, I think); maybe those would look better. I'd sure try to keep the southern exposure if at all possible.

Steve

Thanks for all the suggestions. Since my house faces south, those panels would be exposed and everyone has been coming up with different ideas. I live in Sunny SoCal and the solar heating has been nothing short of brilliant this summer. I'm not losing it, even if it means everyone who pulls up to my house will be greeted by those panels.

I can't imagine that those colored panels would work as well as black....
Boby