Services

Renewables: Solar PV Panels, Inverters, Batteries and DC Cabling

Draw what the building makes for itself: PV modules, inverters, batteries, optimisers, a generator or a wind turbine, and the DC cabling between them, with checks on isolators and string voltages.

Its three tools

Open **CAD tools** in the tool rail and then **Renewables**. The group has three tools, and each has a command you can type.

**Catalogue** (`RENEWABLES`): browse the trade's fittings by system, with each one's plan symbol. Picking one arms Place with it.

**DC cable** (`DCCABLE`): draw a run. Click each point; press Enter to finish. The run starts on the trade's usual size, and its size, system and levels are in its panel afterwards.

**Place** (`PLACEPV`): put down the fitting you picked. Each fitting stands at its usual height, which its panel can change.

A run snaps to the connection points (ports) of fittings, so a pipe or a cable that starts on a fitting is joined to it. A fitting that should be connected and is not is listed in the Issues tab as not connected.

What is in the catalogue

**Generation**: PV modules, wind turbines and generators.

**Conversion and storage**: inverters, power optimisers, batteries.

**Isolation and metering**: DC isolators, DC combiners and generation meters.

The AC side, from the inverter to the board, is drawn with the [Electrical](/docs/electrical) trade.

The checks

**Isolators**: an inverter needs a DC isolator on the array side and an AC isolator on the grid side; a missing one is listed.

**Strings**: a string of modules whose voltage is over the inverter's limit, or under its working range.

**Sizing**: an inverter much bigger than its array, or an array that would clip at the inverter.

In 3D and on paper

**3D**: runs are built as real cables, pipes and ducts at their levels, and fittings stand at their mounting heights. In 3D you can drag a run's end or its body, and it snaps to corners and to other fittings' ports.

**Through walls**: a run that crosses a wall or a floor cuts its own hole through it, and the hole moves with the run.

**Showing and hiding**: the Layers tab has a switch for each trade, and an X-ray switch that shows the services through the building.

**Sections**: a run cut by a section is drawn as its section, and the ones beyond it along their line.

**Schedules**: the Schedules tab lists runs by size, fittings by kind and boards by circuit. See [Sheets and schedules](/docs/sheets-and-schedules).

Frequently asked questions

Where do I draw the cable from the inverter to the consumer unit?

That is the AC side: draw it with the Electrical trade's Cable tool, from the inverter to the board.