Basic panel layout
Advanced panel layout
1. Choose a map or upload an image
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Use the default map, or select another. See Map Integrations for all the options.
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If using NearMap and MetroMaps, you can also select historical maps.
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Upload building plans, drone images, or other online map images.
You can change your default map settings in Settings > Admin > My Preferences > Design.
2. Draw roof surfaces and layout the grid
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Snapping and Guide lines
Ruler
As you draw a line, the length of the line is shown.
Snapping to 45 and 90 deg
If your cursor is close to 45deg or 90deg from the previous line, a solid green line will appear, showing the exact 45 or 90 deg angle. If you are very close to the green line, a Red dot will appear, and when you click, your line will snap to the green line.
Guidelines
When drawing the 3rd line, dotted guidelines will appear showing parallel lines extending from other surfaces. The return line (red dotted) appears when the line back to the starting corner is 45 or 90deg. These dotted lines are just for reference. No red dots appear, so your line won’t snap to them.
Snapping to other surfaces
When drawing another surface, if you are close to an existing surface, the red snapping dot will appear. When you click, it will snap the line to the existing surface.
Turn on/off
If the snapping gets in the way of what you want to do, you can turn it off and on again at any time.
Edit Surface
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To move the entire surface
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To adjust the shape of the surface:
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Measure the edge of the surface by hovering your mouse over the edge.
Adjust the panel grid
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The grid shows the possible locations to place panels. In the Surface Settings section you can adjust it in the following ways: |
Adjust the surface pitch
The default is 23deg for residential and 3deg for commercial - you can change the default in your User Profile.
If designing a ground mount, the surface pitch is the slope of the land.
Rotate the panels from portrait to landscape
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Select the Grid Layout tool
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Click on the Rotate icon
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You can zoom in and rotate each row separately.
Add gaps or spaces between rows
Enter a measurement in the Row Spacing field
Move a row across half a panel
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Select the 50% Second row offset option
Create blocks of panels
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Enter the number of rows grouped together (in this example, there are 10)
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Enter the number of columns grouped together (in this example, 3)
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Enter the Aisle spacing in mm.
Add tilt frames
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In Array Designer, click on Balance of System icon
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Change Mounting Type to Tilt Frame
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Enter Tilt Angle
Auto calculate row spacing, so panels don’t shade the row behind.
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Add tilt frames as per instructions above
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In Surface Settings, you will now be able to select the Winter unshaded period (10-2pm or 9-3pm).
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Click Apply row spacing
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Note the calculated row/aisle spacing.
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You can also mount 2 rows together as shown for 2P systems
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Click Apply row spacing after any adjustments to re-calculate the row/aisle spacing
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To apply a certain number of rows together, first select the number of rows, and then click Apply Row Spacing
Ground mount
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- Draw a surface over the ground area you want to place the panels on. The first line you draw will be the direction that the panels face.
- Set the surface pitch to 0 if the land is flat, or enter the pitch of the land. If the land slopes away from the direction the panels face, enter a negative pitch, eg -3deg.
- For panel incline, enter the tilt angle of the mounting system, eg 30deg.
- If the mounting frame has 2 rows of panels in portrait, under Group Rows: # of rows grouped, enter 2
- Click Apply Row Spacing to calculate the optimal spacing to avoid shading (select the option of unshaded from 10am-2pm or 9am to 3pm). Alternatively, you can manually enter the Aisle spacing you want.
East/West or Back-to-back
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In Array Designer, click on the Balance of System icon
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Set the mounting type to Tilt Frame and enter the Tilt Angle
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If you want the panels to face East/West, then create a surface with the base edge (orange line) facing East and set the surface pitch = 0.
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In Surface Settings, select Back to back tilts
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Check the 3D view to confirm how the tilts are working
3. Select panels
You can use the initial panel layout to estimate the number of panels that you can fit on the roof and then proceed with inverter sizing and stringing.
- Choose a panel model
- Click and swipe the mouse over the grid to place panels, or do a single click to add them individually.
- Once you have a initial panel layout, you can select an inverter and drop inverters or trackers directly into that panel layout.
To clear the placed panels, hit the broom icon.
The eraser icon will clear all panels that have been placed AND are linked to a string. You can retain the placed panels after having completely a string layout, by clearing the stringing with the ‘clear’ (eraser) icon.
4. Select an inverter and panels, or a pre-build package
Recommended System Size
The Solar array size recommendation is aimed at matching the annual average solar production with the customer’s average consumption. It is a simple guide only, based on the consumption profile loaded, the peak sun hours for that latitude, and an average system efficiency of 80%. It doesn't take into consideration battery size.
The Battery size recommendation is based on simple hours of autonomy. For example, if the site uses 30kWh/day, and you want the battery to last 8 hours, it will recommend a 10kWh battery. It doesn't take into consideration any energy available from the solar array.
Select Inverter or a Package
a) Either select a pre-build package if you have them set up in your account
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b) Select an inverter and module combination |
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Auto design based on inverter oversizing
- Select an oversizing % or use the default 133%
- Adjust the max. string voltage if needed
- Select an inverter model
SolarPlus will calculate the optimum number of panels per string on each MPPT.
Manual string design
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Choose how many strings per MPPT, and how many panels per string.
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You can see how many MPPTs the inverter has, the possible number of parallel strings, and possible modules per string.
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The allowable string configuration is calculated based on:
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the power, current and voltage ratings of the inverter and modules
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the site temperature stats
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design Standards (eg limit residential voltages to 600V, inverter 75% oversizing, 1.25 current multiplier) which can be adjusted in Business Settings.
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Don’t worry about locking in a string configuration at this stage, you can change it later. Just make a selection and
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Click Save
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5. Place panels on the roof
There are a few ways you can do this.
a) Place panels one MPPT at a time.
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Click the Drop to Surface icon for MPPT1
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Click and swipe your mouse across surface grid where you want the panels to go
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When the number of panels in the electrical design matches the number selected on the roof, the box will go green.
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If you add too many panels, the box will go red
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If you don’t add enough, the box will be grey.
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You can adjust the electrical design to suit the roof layout.
b) Place all the panels from an inverter at once.
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Click on the Drop to surface icon next to the inverter name, hold, drag and drop the icon onto the surface
c) Place panels one-by-one.
Instead of swiping your mouse across multiple panels, you can click them one-by-one.
Panel Layout for a System Upgrade
Create a different surface for any existing array in order to separate it from the new panel layout (each surface can only have 1 type of panel)
See Upgrades / adding to existing systems
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