Page 108 - Solar Power in Building Design The Engineer's Complete Design Resource

78 SOLAR POWER SYSTEM DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

a central data gathering and monitoring center. The received data are stored and ana-
lyzed using the sophisticated software in computer-based supervisory systems that
also serve as a data-maintenance interface for the solar power system. A weather
station also transmits weather-related information to the central computer.
The stored data are analyzed and forwarded to a display computer that is used for
data presentation and storing information, such as video, sound, pictures, and text
file data.

DISPLAYED INFORMATION
A standard display will usually incorporate a looping background of pictures from
the site, graphical overlays of the power generation in watts and watt-hours for each
building, and the environmental impact from the solar system. The display also shows
current meteorological conditions.
Displayed data in general should include the following combination of items:

Project location (on globe coordinates—zoom in and out)
Current and historic weather conditions
Current positions of the sun and moon, with the date and time

Power generation from the total system and/or the individual solar power arrays
Historic power generation

Solar system environmental impact
Looping background solar system photos and videos
Educational PowerPoint presentations

Installed solar electric power overview
Display of renewable energy system environmental impact statistics

The display should also be programmed to periodically show additional information
related to the building’s energy management or the schedule of maintenance relevant
to the project:

Weather station transmitted data. Transmitted data from the weather monitoring
station should include air temperature, solar cell temperature, wind speed, wind
direction, and sun intensity measured using a pyrometer.

Inverter monitoring transmitted data. Each inverter must incorporate a watt-hour
transducer that will measure dc and ac voltage, current, and power; ac frequency;
watt-hour accumulation; and inverter error codes and operation.

Typical central monitoring computer. The central supervising system must be con-
figured with a CPU with a minimum of 3 GHz of processing power, 512 kilobytes