Support

For questions or comments, email us at support@energytorus.com.  For help with Quick-PV, also check out the tips below.

Quick-PV tips

•             You can click on the tab titles to go to the next or previous step, without jumping two steps ahead or back.

•             When adding a new load, use the   button to bring up a list of common household appliances.  When you double click on an appliance, its power type (AC/DC), voltage and current will be automatically loaded into their respected fields.  You can also modify a load with this button.

 •             For a more accurate estimate, use appliance nametags to obtain the manufacturer’s specified voltage, current, and wattage.  Divide voltage (V) by wattage (W) to calculate the current.  For example, if a microwave rating is 1,000W, 120V, the current will be 8.33A or 1000W/120V.

•             Select Advanced mode in Design ➡  Settings… to expose additional parameters to help fine-tune your design.  For an explanation of these parameters, see 7.5 in User's Manual.

•             Experiment with different component models, such as PV array size, battery bank size, number of inverters, etc, to see how they affect your design.

•             After entering a list of appliances, for a stand-alone, or grid-interactive with battery backup, PV system, you can save the appliance list, by clicking the Export button, in the Load Estimation tab.  By doing this, you can reuse the appliance list for future designs.

•             In a report summary, you can look at the size of the PV array (in sq.-ft.) and use it to determine whether you have enough roof or ground space to mount a PV array.  Further, you can check the weight of the battery bank and determine if it is too heavy to handle.

•             The PV array should be facing true south to maximize its performance.  To find true south for your location, use the online calculator at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomagmodels/Declination.jsp

•             For grid-interactive PV systems, check out the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s PV Energy Production and Cost Savings Calculator, PVWatts, at http://www.pvwatts.org.