[Plugin] Skelion (solar, shadows)

emerkel

Yes, the pitch of the component (modules themselves) are entered in the Skelion prompt. What I'm referring to is the slope of the terrain the components are being placed on, for example placing a table on a hill that slopes 10 degrees to the south. Realistically, racking systems can only be installed on terrain that is within a certain criteria of slope. This isn't a huge issue for simple terrain but for more complex terrain, a particular mesh may slope in the direction of the azimuth and in the lateral direction (side to side). There are practical limits on both of these, generally about 20 degrees in the direction of the azimuth (following the sheds) and about 5-10 degrees side to side. This all depends on the racking mfg but I'm curious if there's any functionality to set criteria for this in Skelion or if there are any plans to add it. I've also emailed the question to j.pons at skelion.

Froedem

Hi,

I'm using skelion for a while now (without any issues) but have been suffering some problems with my regular shadow analysis in sketchup that might be caused by the skelion plugin. In most cases my objects disappear for certain periods a day (while using the shadow slider). This differs a bit from the orientation of the object but it's rather severe. Is this a known bug of the skelion or sketchup 2015 software? Also I would like to know whether this can cause accuracy issues with my skelion shawdow derating calculations?

Cheers

Juantxo

Obects disappear: Not skelion related, is camera clipping. Change from parallel view to perspective view and problem is solved.
Read about here:
http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/36261

Camera clipping problem does not affect shading derate calculations

Froedem

Tried all that already but it has nothing to do with zooming or anything. It's just when I use the shadow function everything just disappears during a certain time of the day. The rest of the day everything visualizes just fine including the shadows. The exact interval of this error depends on the camera position and day of the year.

Hope anyone can help!

Juantxo

Problem is not related with Skelion. Update to SketchUp 2015 last release.
And use perspective view.

Froedem

Something else, could you let me know how the shadow derating calculations of a face are determined? Is this based on a single string for the face (so that the worst performing module at a given time sets the minimum for the others) or is this based on a design with optimisers (performance of modules is independent of each other)? In any case it would be useful to have this option included in the software in order to come to an optimal system design or to calculate both shadow deratings. Besides that it would even be better to be able to select modules to be included for each independent MPPT string.

Cheers

HANERGY

Hi Guys!
I'm a beginner user of Sketchup (Pro 2015, version 15.3.331 64 bit) and I'm trying to design a PV-system in a flat roof with several chimneys. Is there any way to create the shading area and then automatically avoid those while filling in the available surfaces?

I hope someone can help me!
Many thanks!

juju

@hanergy said:

Hi Guys!
I'm a beginner user of Sketchup (Pro 2015, version 15.3.331 64 bit) and I'm trying to design a PV-system in a flat roof with several chimneys. Is there any way to create the shading area and then automatically avoid those while filling in the available surfaces?

I hope someone can help me!
Many thanks!