Solar Electricity Handbook 2011: A Simple Practical Guide to Solar Energy - Designing and Installing Photovoltaic Solar Electric Systems - Michael Boxwell (2011)

The Design Process

No matter what your solar energy system is for, there are seven steps in the design of every successful solar electric installation:

· Scope the project

· Calculate the amount of energy you need

· Calculate the amount of solar energy available

· Survey your site

· Size up the solar electric system

· Select the right components and work out full costs

· Produce the detailed design

The design process can be made more complicated, or simplified, based on the size of the project. If you are simply installing an off-the-shelf shed light, for instance, you can probably complete the whole design in around twenty minutes. If, on the other hand, you are looking to install a solar electric system in a business to provide emergency site power in the case of a power cut, your design work is likely to take considerably more time.

Whether your solar electric system is going to be large or small, whether you are buying an off-the-shelf solar lighting kit or designing something from scratch, it is worth following this basic design process every time. This is true even if you are installing an off-the-shelf system. This ensures that you will always get the best from your system and will provide you with the reassurance that your solar energy system will achieve everything you need it to do.

Short-cutting the design work

Having said that doing the design work is important, there are some useful online tools to help make the process as easy as possible.

Once you have scoped your project, the Solar Electricity Handbook website (www.SolarElectricityHandbook.com) includes a number of online tools and calculators that will help you carry out much of the design work.

The solar irradiance tables and solar angle calculators will allow you to work out how much solar energy is available at your location, whilst the off-grid project analysis and grid-tie project analysis questionnaires will each generate and e-mail to you a full report for your proposed system, including calculating the size of system you require and providing a cost estimate.

Of course, there is a limit to how much a set of online solar tools can help you in isolation, so you will still need to carry out a site survey and go through components selection and detailed design yourself, but these tools will allow you to try several different configurations and play out ‘what if’ scenarios quickly and easily.

Incidentally, whilst some of these tools ask you for an e-mail address (in order to send you your report), your e-mail address is not stored anywhere on the system. Other than the report that you request, you will never receive unsolicited e-mails because of entering your e-mail address.

Solar energy and emotions

Design can often seem to be a purely analytical and rational process. It should not be. All great designs start with a dream.

For many people, choosing solar energy is often an emotional decision: they want a solar energy system for reasons other than just the purely practical. Some people want solar energy because they want to ‘do their bit’ for the environment, others want the very latest technology, or want to use solar simply because it can be done. Others want solar energy because they see the opportunity to earn money. I suspect that for most homeowners, the reasons are a combination of the above.

It is so important that the emotional reasons for wanting something are not ignored. We are not robots. Our emotions should be celebrated, not suppressed: the Wright brothers built the first aircraft because they wanted to reach the sky. NASA sent a man to the moon because they wanted to go further than anyone had ever done before. Neither undertaking could be argued as purely rational; they were the results of big dreams.

It is important to acknowledge that there are often hidden reasons for wanting solar energy. Sadly, these reasons often do not make it down onto a sheet of paper in a design document or onto a computer spreadsheet. Sometimes, the person making the decision for buying solar energy is secretly worried that if they voice their dreams, they will appear in some way irrational.

The reality is that it is often a good thing if there is an emotional element to wanting a solar energy system. By documenting these reasons, you will end up with a better solution. For instance, if the environmental benefits are top of your agenda, you will use your solar energy system in a different way to somebody who is looking at solar purely as a business investment.

By acknowledging these reasons and incorporating them into the design of your system, you will end up with a far better system. Not only will you have a system that works in a practical sense, it will also achieve your dream.

In conclusion

· No matter how big or small your project, it is important to design it properly

· There are online tools available to help you with the calculations and to speed up the work

· Do not ignore the emotional reasons for wanting a solar energy system. You are a human being: you are allowed to dream