How do I analyze my model for optimal placement of solar panels?

[Duncan Lithgow]

I can't seem to get anywhere with this project. I've build a model and all I want to do is analyze incident solar radiation to find the best spot to put some solar panels. Can anyone help me out? I'm not even sure if Green Building Studio can do this calculation, I also can't work out if Ecotect is discontinued or what... of course I'd be happy to hear of something free...

[damon.sidel]

Ecotect was bought by Autodesk (http://usa.autodesk.com/ecotect-analysis/). It is quite expensive now, but even more robust and integrates nicely with Revit. You could also go to Vasari, which is free, since it has built-in environmental analysis tools. You can open RVT files, but I'm not sure what specifically is supported.

If all else fails and you happen to have 3ds Max, it can be used for solar analysis. I'm no expert and I consider Max a beast, but I'm pretty sure it would give you good information if you are able to use it well enough.

[DaveP]

How weird can you get?
I just asked my reseller not 20 minutes ago if Ecotect is still available!

damon, the link you posted goes to a page that lists the 2011 version of Ecotect. Has it not been updated in 2 years?

[Mike L Sealander]

Optimal placement for solar panels depends on a couple of factors, but if you want to point your panels at an altitude (angle relative to the ground plane) such that half the year the sun is at a steeper angle than your panels at noon, then I would just use Revit's solar tool and get the sun angle at the equinox. If you are putting the panels on a flat roof, you might consider just laying them down flat, since the panels can then be placed at a high density without casting shadows on each other.

[jsnyder.68308]

How weird can you get?
I just asked my reseller not 20 minutes ago if Ecotect is still available!

damon, the link you posted goes to a page that lists the 2011 version of Ecotect. Has it not been updated in 2 years?

This is true - Ecotect version 2011 is the current version. We have been paying for subscriptions on the thing for no benefit whatsoever.

[damon.sidel]

This is true - Ecotect version 2011 is the current version. We have been paying for subscriptions on the thing for no benefit whatsoever.

Didn't even notice that! We don't have a copy of Ecotect at my office, so I wasn't paying attention. That's pretty lame for such a powerful and relevant piece of software. Good news about it being so out of date, you can get it for $200 now, instead of $1200.

[DaveP]

???
Who said anything about $200? (unless you were being sarcastic)
I just got a quote from my reseller for $1900.
PLUS subscription.

[Duncan Lithgow]

Don't you all think that they've stopped work on it because they will switch to Green Building Studio web service for this type of moderately heavy number crunching? What I want for example, a color graded indication of annual incident solar radiation on all exposed surfaces - that's a fair bit of math.

[damon.sidel]

Don't you all think that they've stopped work on it because they will switch to Green Building Studio web service for this type of moderately heavy number crunching? What I want for example, a color graded indication of annual incident solar radiation on all exposed surfaces - that's a fair bit of math.

That may be the reason. That said, Ecotect does exactly what you want and at $200 is an excellent deal. You only have to use it a handful of times on a few projects for it to pay for itself.

Green Building Studio says it can do a Photovoltaic Potential Analysis (wikihelp.autodesk.com/Green_Building_Studio/enu/Help/Help/0013-Projects13/0052-Understa52/0074-Photovol74). Isn't that even better than the graded color diagram?