How Solar Sizing Works In GridGap
The Solar tab brings together day-load demand, battery recharge demand, solar production assumptions, panel count, and advisory string-related outputs. It is the place where energy need becomes a practical array size.
What the Solar tab is doing
In a hybrid scenario, the solar result is doing more than counting panels. It is asking how much energy the array must deliver across the day, how much loss should be expected in the real world, and whether the same array must also restore battery energy used during the night.
That is why the Solar tab mixes energy values, panel counts, and advisory layout information. The app is trying to show both the size of the job and a plausible way that job might be built.
Input reminder cards
The first set of cards reminds you which solar assumptions shaped the result: Panel Size, Panel Voc, Panel Vmp, Effective sun hours, Installation efficiency, and Cloud factor.
These reminder cards are useful when a solar result feels unexpectedly heavy or light. Before questioning the panel count, confirm that the panel size, sun hours, and loss assumptions really match the scenario you meant to calculate.
Energy requirement build-up
The energy chain begins with Day load Wh and Solar energy for day loads. These explain the solar burden created by daytime consumption.
If the scenario expects solar to help restore the battery after night-time use, the tab also shows Battery recharge Wh and Solar energy for battery recharge. This is an important split. It tells you how much of the array burden comes from direct daytime use and how much comes from asking solar to put energy back into the battery.
Total solar energy required combines those ideas into the final daily solar burden, and Required solar W turns that burden into a practical array-size target.
If the solar result looks surprisingly large, this split is the first place to investigate. Sometimes the array is being driven more by battery recharge expectations than by the daytime load itself.
Panel count and string guidance
Raw minimum panel count is the energy-based minimum before practical cleanup. Installed panel count is the final whole-panel count the app suggests after turning the energy answer into something that can be built more cleanly.
The next cards help explain how that installed count is being organised: Panels per string, String count, Estimated string Vmp, Estimated string Voc, and PV voltage limit. These do not turn GridGap into a final string design tool, but they do give useful indicative guidance about whether the final count is aligning with a plausible arrangement.
Day-only panel count and Battery-recharge panel count are especially useful when you want to understand what is actually driving the array. They show how much of the panel count belongs to daytime loads and how much belongs to battery recovery.
Actual installed solar then shows the final installed wattage implied by the chosen panel size and installed panel count.
Cloud sensitivity and surplus
Solar surplus / shortfall is a planning interpretation of how the final installed solar compares with the modeled requirement. It is useful, but it should not be read as a promise of identical real-world performance in every weather pattern.
The Cloud sensitivity panel counts section shows how different cloud assumptions can change the panel count. If those values move sharply, the app is telling you that the solar result is sensitive to weather and that the chosen site assumptions deserve careful attention.
The Indicative string guidance notes are also worth reading. They often explain why the installed panel count is not identical to the raw minimum and help you understand the practical cleanup behind the result.