Solar manufacturers, especially those selling inverter and mounting products, have added web-based tools to their websites that help contractors design and buy systems.
The tools benefit contractors and manufacturers alike. Contractors can use them to ensure they’re buying the right product; and as a result, manufacturers are less likely to sell the wrong one. Selling the wrong product could, at best, mean a time-consuming exchange or, at worst, a fault on a rooftop.
“Having an installer pick the right components and do the installation the right way helps all parties,” said Michael Rogerson, marketing manager at SolarEdge. “The homeowner, installer and service team all have a good experience.”
For its part, SolarEdge offers Site Designer, a tool that recommends the number of strings for an array as well as each string’s length. It also suggests inverter and power optimizer selections based on site size and module selection. After a customer finishes the process, he can print a Bill-of-Materials for the design.
Rogerson said SolarEdge has long been an engineering-focused company, steeped in technical detail.
“It’s somewhat daunting if you’re new to the technology,” Rogerson said. “There needs to be an on-ramp.”
IronRidge also has an online tool, Design Assistant. Users input array dimensions and the program compiles a Bill-of-Materials and provides engineering values, such as the loads and forces a solar array can be expected to endure.
Solmetric’s PV Designer
“At SolarEdge, they’re talking about electrical characteristics,” said David Briggs, marketing director at IronRidge. “With us, we’re interested in the mechanical dimensions—such as how much surface area there is, how thick the frame is.”
Briggs said Design Assistant gives contractors all the information they need to procure a system, at least one from IronRidge. The information lets contractors quickly quote a customer and start a project faster.
Another benefit, Briggs said, is the tool provides enough engineering information for contractors to tweak variables and try their hand at design optimization.
“We were the first to come out with a tool in 2009,” Briggs said. “Customers thought IronRidge was so easy, why would they use other stuff? And over the last five years, we’ve seen more companies come out with similar products.”
Another manufacturer to develop software is Solmetric. The company sells the Suneye, a tool that uses a fisheye lens to map the sunpath at any location and determine how much sunlight or shade the location will receive throughout the year.
Accurate on-site shade analysis allows system designers to optimally place arrays, as well as make more informed selections of module, inverter and BOS components. Using shade data from the SunEye as a graphical gradient overlaid onto proposed CAD roof sections, the company’s software, PV Designer, provides an intuitive interface to select components and place arrays with real-time yield estimation updates.
“PV Designer is not necessarily associated with the hardware product—you can use it without the hardware—but it’s a natural progression of taking shading data and using it in a convenient way,” said Kevin Myers, applications engineer at Solmetric.
As the future unwinds, manufacturers say the goal of software will be to reduce soft costs and go from sale to install quicker. Part of the process will be the adoption of more mobile software tools.
“Mobile is a big part of what we’re doing,” Briggs said. “You can do a lot with a smartphone app. Instead of someone downloading Site Designer for their PC, maybe they have it in their hand, on the field, checking the order as it comes.” SPW