How to add solar cells on buildings

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Permalink Reply by peter fotiadis on July 13, 2014 at 4:07am

Well...

Huge topic (mostly because the trad PV panel technology is dead (but inertia/momentum etc etc)).

BEFORE anything else go there and have an eye to the next big (green) thing:

http://www.solaronix.com/services/

As regards your definition: I've spend 30 minutes (applying mostly cut and paste stuff , he he).

 

1. You can put trad panels (with trad ugly fasteners) on your roofs (using the orient component and then ... well it's a bit more complicated than that since the roofs vary in size) - but everybody in the taller buildings would "benefit" from the ugliness. I mean that pretending (too late for anything realistic - Armageddon is unavoidable) to save the polar bears is a very good thing ... but aesthetics ( AND REFLEXIONS that could blind the taller buildings) ...

2. You can apply some truss - MERO style (that could extend the roof area - some dynamism please, he he) and either use high perf flat panels or inclined ones (the difference in gain can't justify the cost of the secondary "inclined" system). The issue here is that your roofs are different thus ... either the roof or the space frame should comply. In a few years from now ... recycle the panels and install some Solaronix "grid" on these trusses and then recycle and install the next gen "grid" etc etc.

BTW: for trad low-perf panels calculate around 8Kw/h per 35-40m2 of surface.

Attachments:

• solarcellsonbuildings2.3dm, 236 KB
• solarcellsonbuildings2.gh, 123 KB

Permalink Reply by peter fotiadis on July 14, 2014 at 1:34am

And the usual update:

1. The orientation issue is resolved (see comments 1a, 1b). In fact it shouldn't occur : rectangles are OK ... the issue appears after converting them to surfaces (quite probably a GH bug that one).

2. The truss definition provided is not actually required : you could do it using Paneling tools/Lunchbox/Grid of points using very few components (but this def works in any surface, thus it could be useful in other cases).

3. The non truss option could been equally addressed via Paneling tools/Lunchbox/Grid of points etc etc.

All the above are just indicative (and incomplete) : here we need a standard PV panel (check the available sizes and create some sort of "filter" for input) arranged in arrays with the "best-fit-per-roof" way (roofs are different in size) ... so it's obvious what is required here.

Attachments:

• solarcellsonbuildings3.gh, 133 KB

Permalink Reply by peter fotiadis on July 14, 2014 at 6:22am

And the usual update of the update:

Added the classic ugly PV deployment "method" (which is correct since it deals with the same panel size regardless of the roof size). The final combo re-alignment (with regards the roof center) is left to you, he he.

Attachments:

• solarcellsonbuildings4.gh, 140 KB

Permalink Reply by Nina Birch Nielsen on August 2, 2014 at 3:50am

Sorry, that I have not answered! It is because I have been on vacation for such a long time! :-) Thanks for all the help! It was a issue that I had on my university.

Thanks a lot! :-)

Permalink Reply by peter fotiadis on August 2, 2014 at 12:03pm

Tradition above all : the update of the update of the update.

Attachments:

• solarcellsonbuildings5.gh, 200 KB