Release notes 1.47/1.47.2

📢 What's new

New features

String sizing

You can now get an automatic string size recommendation based on your project's location and the selected module and inverter combination.

How does it work?

For the software to provide a string size recommendation, you need to provide the project location and electrical parameters for modules and inverters: 

1. Set project location to get min and max temperatures. In Settings, set your project’s location by clicking on the globe icon and putting a pin on your project site. The minimum and maximum temperatures will be pulled from historical data through PVGIS. The module’s minimum and maximum voltages will be calculated according to the weather data.

2. Add module with electrical parameters. When adding a module to the component database, fill in the Vmpp, Voc and Voc temp coefficient parameters. These are mandatory fields if you would like to get the recommended string limits.

3. Add inverter with electrical parameters. When adding an inverter to the component database, fill in the Min MPPT input voltage, Max MPPT input voltage and/or Max input voltage.

4. Select Yes/No to Max string size by the Inverter’s Vmax. Based on your preference, you can choose to have the max of the string range to be calculated with Max MPPT input voltage or Max input voltage.

• If you select Yes: Max Input Voltage is used for the max string size
• If you select No: Max MPPT input voltage is used for the max string size

5. Select the module and inverter combination. The drop-down list includes the modules and inverters present in the drawing. Select the components you’d like to use to get the recommended string size.

How do we calculate the recommended string size range?

The recommended range depends on whether you have selected the Inverter’s Vmax as the reference for the maximum string size or not. We use different formulas to calculate the recommendation in each scenario, as shown below:

Scenario 1 – Inverter’s Vmax not selected

If you haven't selected the Inverter's Vmax for string size limit calculations:

1. We calculate module voltages based on project location

2. We calculate the recommended string size

Scenario 2 – Inverter’s Vmax selected

If you have selected the Inverter's Vmax for string size limit calculations:

1. We calculate module voltages based on project location, and Voc is used to calculate the module’s max voltage

2. Calculate the recommended string size limits, where the max string size is calculated with the inverter’s Vmax (Max Input Voltage)

Minor updates & bug fixes

• Inverter power is now streamlined to be Nominal AC Power.
• Previously, when using the Add Inverters function in PVcase Roof Mount versions before 1.46 on drawings, an error message would appear warning you that the inverter dimensions were incorrect. The issue was that these dimensions were logged as 0 but were not editable within the Component Library. This has been resolved in version 1.47, where you will still be notified of any incorrect dimensions but also be able to update them within the Component Library.
• 1.47.2: We quickly detected and resolved an issue that caused AutoCAD to freeze when opening the RM plugin if a drawing was already loaded.