­­­­­PV System Mobile Applications for Engineers

Here are the best solar PV system mobile applications for engineers and technicians that are the need of every engineer and technician working in the field of solar photovoltaic systems. Although there are many more tools which are available in the market. We will be targeting some special application categories that will make your work easy. Here in this blog, we will not be discussing some specific applications but will be discussing some specific application categories that are helpful in solar PV systems designing and maintenance.

1. Google Maps

Some other mobile applications that help in finding the longitude and latitude of solar PV sites are:

1. My GPS Coordinate
2. Latitude Longitude
3. GPS Coordinates

2. Angle Meter

Angle meter is also one of the best solar PV system applications that help in the designing of solar PV systems. To optimize the design of the solar PV system the angle should be optimized for the specific site and for the specific season such as summer and winter. There are many tools available in the market for measuring the angle, here in this blog we will be focussing on the tools and apps that are available on the mobile phone.

Optimizing the solar PV system needs an optimized angle of the solar panel’s array so that most of the energy from the sun is captured and utilized. The angle optimization depends on the geographic location, hemisphere i.e., Northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere, of the site, and the season. After finding your geographic location on google Maps i.e., longitude and latitude, and the season you could find the best angle for the solar panel array of your site.

Some of the best angle meter applications that are available on mobile phones are the following:

1. Angle Meter
2. Bubble Level, Spirit Level

3. Compass

Compass applications on mobile phones not only show you the direction but also set the way for the success of the PV project. Depending on the hemisphere (North hemisphere or South hemisphere) of the solar PV system site, the compass app helps and makes it easy for you to find the direction of where your solar PV array shall be facing. To optimize the solar PV system the solar panels’ array should be facing the direction so that it can capture the sun’s energy most of the time in the best possible way.

Some of the best compass mobile applications that are available on mobile phones are the following:

1. Digital Compass
2. Compass (Altimeter, Sunrise, S)

4. Load Calculator – Solar Panel Calculator

Load calculator and solar panel calculator are the applications that make your work easy. Load calculation and solar panel calculation is one of the important things in designing a solar PV system. Load calculation and solar panel calculation are two different things but keeping the available mobile applications in view, it falls in the same category because most of the best applications do both jobs.

To make your solar PV system successful and long-lasting you must figure out the exact load of your appliances, the number and size of solar panels it will require and the hours it runs a day.

Some of the best load calculator and solar panel calculator applications that are available on mobile phones are the following:

1. Load Calculator – Solar Panel
2. Home Electricity Calculator
3. Electrical Calculations

5. Peak Sun Hours Finder

Peak sun hours finder is an application that helps you find the peak hours of the sun shining a day in your region. The peak sun hours vary with geographic locations and seasons therefore finding the actual peak sun hours is also one of the important things in the designing of solar PV systems. For an optimized solar PV system, it is necessary to find the peak sun hours of your site location for at least two different seasons i.e., Summer and Winter.

Finding the peak sun hours of the site can be done in different ways, one of which is the google search. Some of the peak sun hours calculator applications that are available on mobile phones are the following:

1. Sun Position, Sunrise & Sunset
2. Sunclock – Sunrise Sunset Moon

6. LUX Meter Application

LUX meter is also one of the important applications that are available on mobile phones. It is used to find the illuminance reaching a specific surface. LUX meter can be equally helpful in the installation and maintenance of the PV array. Although the applications available on mobile phones are not that optimized as it requires a physical device for measuring the luminance of a specific area, it still it is quite helpful. For best results, it is highly recommended to go for a physical LUX meter. Some of the best LUX meter applications on mobile phones are:

1. Lux Light Meter Pro
2. Lux Meter (Light Meter)

7. PV System Monitoring Application

PV system monitoring application is also one of the best solar PV system applications that are available on mobile phones. It helps you monitor your solar PV system from your mobile phone. Monitoring solar PV system on time increases the lifetime and maintain the efficiency of the system. Some of the best PV monitoring applications are:

1. mySolarEdge
2. PV Pro
3. SolarEdge Monitoring

8. PV-Solar Power System

“PV-Solar Power system” is an all-in-one solar PV system application that is available on mobile phones. It covers most of the things that are required in planning, designing, and maintenance of solar PV systems.  

1. PV-Solar Power System
2. Solar Calculator| Angle Meter
3. PV Calculator

In addition to the above solar PV system applications for mobile, there are also some great and advanced applications/software that are available on PC (Windows + macOS), which we will be discussing in the coming blog posts.