Solmetric PV Designer™

Solmetric PV Designer Software

PV Designer software enables you to lay out solar PV modules on a roof surface and calculate the energy production for your system. Results are corrected for the impacts of partial shading, using your Skylines from the Solmetric SunEye™. The software is designed for residential and smaller commercial systems of 15 kW or less. More information can be found in the flyer here.

Who can benefit from PV Designer?
If you design residential and smaller commercial systems of 15 kW or less with either a single inverter or multiple inverters, PV Designer is the design tool of choice. The software is easy to learn and easy to use, and allows detailed analysis practical for all installers, not just engineers of big commercial systems.

What does PV Designer do?
The software predicts how much electrical production will be generated by your PV system in a typical year (hourly, monthly or hourly). In a few easy steps, you input the following information:

PV designer will display a shading map on your layout area and let you move the modules to their optimum locations. You can easily try different scenarios and compare their AC kW-hr outputs to find the best design. An example screenshot is shown.

Do I need a SunEye to use PV Designer?
One of the key benefits of PV Designer is the ability to easily incorporate shade effects in your system design. In order to obtain the necessary shading data, you’ll want and need a Solmetric SunEye shade analysis tool. If you don’t already own one, find out more here.

However, to evaluate PV Designer, you won’t need a SunEye. An ‘Example SunEye Session’ is available on the Software Downloads page that will allow you to try out PV Designer without a SunEye.

What about more complex PV systems?
As the capabilities of PV Designer are enhanced, Solmetric expects to address larger systems and more complex designs such as are used in commercial PV systems.

• Type of PV module
• Type of Inverter
• String design
• Module layout geometry
• SunEye shade data
• Partial shade energy calculations
• Your location and weather data

How do I try PV Designer?
Download the SunEye Desktop Software version 4.30 from the Software Downloads page. You’ll automatically get a free 30 day trial when you first select PV Designer from the Session menu.

To download the SunEye Desktop Software version 4.30 with PV Designer, visit the Software Downloads page.

How do I access PV Designer?
The PV Designer software is a licensed module within the Solmetric SunEye's Desktop Software, version 4.0 or higher. PV Designer is accessed through the Desktop Software. To operate, the PV Designer requires a SunEye session to be loaded and active. When the PV Designer is first run (from the Session menu of the SunEye Desktop Software), an option is presented to either purchase the software or to initiate a 30-day free trial.

Minimum system requirements:
• Operating System: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2 or later (Professional, Home, or Media Center)
• Processor Speed: 1 GHz minimum
• RAM: 1 GByte minimum, 2 GByte recommended
• Available Disc Space: 200 MB or more.
• MS Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher.
• Display resolution: 1280x1024 or greater. The software will function with lower resolution, such as 1024x800, although there may be some steps required to see all design information.
Systems that do not meet these requirements may not operate correctly.