PV panel form

Two types of PV panels can be selected from the Palette in the 3D tab:

The "PV AC panel" has an attached AC inverter that converts the electricity to an AC grid, which makes it ready to be used in the simulation, while for the "PV panel" (without inverter), the user has to define strings and assign them to inverters.

The PV panels of both types can be dragged to the building body surfaces in the 3D tab. Their form looks slightly different depending on their type and whether they are placed on a flat or tilted building body face (threshold at 1° tilt angle).

	panel on flat roof (up to 1° tilt angle)	panel on tilted envelope (more than 1 ° tilt angle)
"PV panel" form (wihtout attached inverter)
"PV AC panel" form (with attached inverter)

Model

The PV panel model can be selected from the database. In the case of a PV AC panel, an object is first displayed for the combination of panel and inverter.

Optimizer (not available for PV AC panel)

An optimizer can be selected from the database.

Belong to PV string (not available for PV AC panel)

As soon as PV strings are defined, you can here see and select, which PV string this panel belongs to. If no string is available in the list, click "define PV strings" at the bottom of this form.

Energy meter (only available for PV AC panel)

The energy meter for the electrical production can be selected. For PV panels without thier own inverter, the energy meter is selected at the string level.

Orientation

If "Landscape" is chosen, the sizes in the X and Y directions are switched compared to "Portrait". This can be a little confusing for PV roof systems, when the PV panel model is stored in “Portrait” orientation in the database.

Position

This is the position of the lower left corner of the panel within the building volume face. The same coordinates can be found in the "Properties" tab of the side bar, when the panel is selected in the 3D view.

Size

Returns the values for module width, height and area that cannot be set in this form. The “HWDsizes” parameter in the panel model must be adjusted for this.

Figure with inclination and azimuth angles for angled panels (only for panels on flat roofs with up to 1° tilt angle)

Set the angles as illustrasted. For the inclination, 0° is horizontal, 90° is vertical. For the atimuth, 0° is south, positive numbers towards west.

Skew (only for panels on tilted envelope with more than 1° tilt angle)

Set the twist and tilt angles relative to the building body face. The figures show positive angles. The Twist figure has a view from above. 

Create/edit grid

The link says "Create grid..." as long as the panel is not part of a grid, and "Edit grid..." as soon as a grid is created. Clicking on the link in the form of any panel in a specific grid will open the dialog for the same grid. "Rows" and "Columns" will initially be 1 when creating a grid.

Note: Panels with no grid will not be ventilated on their backside, as the gap behind a building integrated PV panel is part of its grid. A grid of two panel rows will therefore have one ventilation gap over both rows. If you want to have one ventilation gap per row, you will need to define two separate grids fro both rows. If you delete a grid, all panels of the grid will remain as independent panels without ventilation gap. If you want to delete all panels of a grid, it is always best to edit the grid, reset "Rows" and "Columns" to 1 and only then delete the remaining panel.

Define PV strings (not available for PV AC panel)

This link will open the PV string edit mode in the 3D view, where you can define strings and assign the PV panels to them. It makes sence to use this link only after all the panels have been placed on the building body surfaces.

The form for setting the grid.

The number of rows and columns can be chosen here.

The X and Y steps are by default calculated from the X and Y sizes + 5 cm. The X and Y max values can be set to be calculated from the X and Y min and step values. Or if the min and max values are chosen, the number of columns/rows or the step sizes can be chosen to be calculated.  

Note that X max, Y max is the lower left corner of panel of the last column and row. 

By ticking Custom plane it is possible to also set the slope of the grid plane.