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Your Solar Project

Note that you can use Shadow Visualizer and Shadow Analyzer not only for the visualization and analysis of your solar collector system, but also for many other tasks that are somehow associated with the solar radiation or solar light in architecture, solar design, and even in your everyday practical life.

Shadow Visualizer vs. Shadow Analyzer

To decide which one of our products Shadow Visualizer or Shadow Analyzer corresponds to your needs, compare the tasks that you can implement with them.

Both the products allow you to create the architectural environment of your project, and define a collector system with the static or sun-tracking panels. Both the products allow to visualize shadows on your solar collectors for different days and seasons to error-proof your project. You can transfer 3D views of your solar project into other applications like MS Word to write an illustrated report or MS PowerPoint to create an animated presentation.

In addition, Shadow Analyzer (as the most advanced product) provides you with various forms of the graphical and numerical information concerning your project. It allows you to specify the climatic parameters of your site. Then, Shadow Analyzer displays the calculated characteristics of the shading, energy losses, and the energy output of your system in several "solar" windows modeling particular days or the entire year. You can analyze the graphical representation of the data (as a set of curves of the calculated characteristics), or use the Table window that displays their numerical values. Then you can transfer the tables into other applications like MS Excel to mix data of different versions of your project and implement further numerical analysis for the optimization of your project or for more specific research tasks.

Use Shadow Visualizer and Shadow Analyzer to error-proof your solar project:

• Create and manage 3D scenes with the architectural environment of your project.
• Define dimensions and configurations of your static or suntracking solar collectors.
• Visualize shadows on solar collectors for different days and seasons to understand their nature.
• Transfer 3D views of your solar project into other applications like MS Word to write an illustrated report or MS PowerPoint to create an animated presentation.

Use Shadow Analyzer to implement the complete site analysis and optimization of your solar project:

• Create and manage 3D scenes with the architectural environment of your project.
• Define dimensions and configurations of your static or suntracking solar collectors.
• Visualize shadows on solar collectors for different days and seasons to understand their nature.
• Set the climatic parameters of your site using the Bird model of a clear sky.
• Calculate the energy losses associated with the shading of your collectors.
• Compare the annual energy yeld of the different project versions to optimize the energy output.
• Transfer data of your solar project (3D views, calculated tables, etc.) into other applications like MS Excel, MS Word, and MS PowerPoint to implement further numerical analysis, to write an illustrated report, or to create an animated presentation.

This is the screen shot of a typical session with Shadow Analyzer. You see the 3D View window with a view of the static collector system on the southern plane of the roof. This window is available also in Shadow Visualizer. You can use it for visual analysis of the shading of your collectors. You see also some "solar" windows that are available in Shadow Analyzer only. Each "solar" window has a few pages that display different aspects of the corresponding information. The Climate & Irradiance window allows to set the climatic characteristics of your site. The Solar Day and Solar Year windows display the irradiation, shading, energy losses, and energy output of your system.

Create Architecture

Most of the materials of previous chapters are devoted just to the theme of the scene creation. If you are not yet familiar with this technique, we provide you with a guide line in the next topic Create Architecture of this chapter.

You can find there also some practical notes on how to define a reasonable amount of the architectural details in your scenes, when you work with the "solar" windows of Shadow Analyzer.

Define Collector System

The "solar" windows of Shadow Analyzer interpret objects of the following object types as solar collectors:

• "Arr RectInc" -- an array of the static solar collectors.
• "Arr RectST" -- an array of the 2-axes sun-tracking solar collectors.

This mechanism provides a user with a flexible way to construct a collector system of different configurations composing a few array-objects of these types. See details in the topic Define Collector System of this chapter.

Visualize Shadows

The visualization of shadows itself is the most important method of the error-proof of your project. This option is available in both the products Shadow Visualizer and Shadow Analyzer.

Considering the scene day by day for different seasons of the year, you can determine the origin of the collector shading and the time boundaries when it occurs. It helps also to interpret the numerical data of the "solar" windows of Shadow Analyzer, because the shading characteristics become more evident after you compare them with the shadow images of the 3D View window.

See details in the topic Visualize Shadows of this chapter.

Solar Radiation Windows

Note: the "solar" windows and their interface elements described in this chapter are available only in Shadow Analyzer, but not in any other product of the Shadow Analyzer Collection.

In addition to the multiple 3D View windows that you use to create scenes, define your collector system, and visualize shadows, Shadow Analyzer has a few specific "solar" windows that allow you to set the climatic parameters of your site, calculate the energy characteristics of your collectors, evaluate the energy losses associated with the shading, compare the annual energy yeld of the different system versions, and implement the complete site analysis and the optimization of your solar project to increase the energy output.

Use the toolbar Sun to open the following "solar" windows:

• -- the "Bird Clear Sky Model" window
• -- the "Climate & Irradiance" window
• -- the "Solar Day" window
• -- the "Solar Year" window
• -- the "Solar Table" window

The following scheme represents the data exchange and the synchronization of the 3D View and "solar" windows:

The transfer of the climatic parameters via the notification dialog box:

• "Bird"  ==>  "Climate"  <==>  the scene of the latest active 3D View

Automatic update of the recalculated energy characteristics after the scene or view change:

• latest active 3D View  ==>  "Day" and "Year"

Automatic refreshment of the "Solar Table" window:

• latest active  "Bird", "Climate", "Day", or "Year"  ==>  "Table"

See details in the topic Solar Radiation Windows of this chapter. The particular pages of the "solar" windows are described in Bird Clear Sky Model, Climate & Irradiance, Solar Day, and Solar Year.

Solar Tables

The "Solar Table" window is a specific "solar" window that displays the numerical data of the curves of other "solar" windows. Namely, it displays the data of the latest active "solar" window, one of "Bird", "Climate", "Day", or "Year" windows.

See details in the topic Solar Tables of this chapter.

Transfer Data into Other Applications

Use the "Copy to Clipboard" options of Shadow Analyzer to transfer data, 3D views, and tables with the calculated characteristics of your project into other applications like MS Excel, MS Word, and MS PowerPoint to implement any further numerical analysis, to write an illustrated report, or to create an animated presentation.

See details in the topic Data Transfer of this chapter.