Check these if SunSPOT isn’t finishing the estimate
If SunSPOT is failing to calculate, or it’s giving strange results, please check these 4 things.
1. Please check your internet speed
If you are finding that SunSPOT is failing to calculate estimates or it is taking very a long time, it may be due to the internet speed or the processing power of your device or computer.
SunSPOT’s calculations are complex, drawing on weather data, 3D spatial mapping data (roof tilt and orientation) and shading data, energy consumption or load profiling data, and complicated algorithms to determine solar system performance. Battery calculations add further complexity.
We’ve stress tested SunSPOT’s performance on a mix of browsers with different connection speeds, as well as 4G and 3G by adding 6 groups of panels, and a battery. (Most properties will only accommodate 1 or 2 groups of panels.)
We found that on 4G is sufficient to complete these complex estimates in 40-50 seconds with most browsers, except for Firefox, which was slower (above 1 minute) and glitchy. Adding a battery took another 30 seconds to complete the estimate.
A good 3G connection (1.5Mps download, 750 kbps upload, and 40ms minimum latency) is the minimum speed to use all of SunSPOT’s features. However, it was slower to perform our test at around 1 minute, and adding battery took another 45 second to 1 minute to calculate.
We recommend accessing the best connection you can for best results! And please check to see if your browser needs updating.
2. Check that the roof is covered in dots (when using the Premium version of SunSPOT)
Premium SunSPOT is unable to complete calculations of the solar system’s performance if it does not have LiDAR for the whole roof. LiDAR or Light Detection and Ranging is an active remote sensing system that can be used to measure in 3D the earth’s surface area.
When you are in Premium SunSPOT, in the panel mapping phase, after tapping Assess roof, dots should appear to show the best spots for solar panels (red and orange dots).
However, if there are no dots on your roof, or areas of the roof that do not have dots covering them, you should toggle the switch that says “Some or all of my roof doesn’t show dots” and complete the calculations in the Standard version of SunSPOT.
Standard SunSPOT does not rely on LiDAR data. Instead, you will be asked to add information about nearby shading objects and the slope and orientation of the roof.
Below is an example of a building that does not have dots on the roof in the Premium SunSPOT.
Above: The building is outside of the LiDAR data capture area, hence there are no coloured dots. The user will need to complete the estimate by switching the toggle shown in the panel and using Standard SunSPOT.
3. Clear your cookies and caching
For those who are using SunSPOT regularly, it may be caching results that are slowing down the calculations. It’s worth clearing these to speed it up. See the linked advice below:
Clearing cache and cookies in Chrome
Delete browser history in Microsoft Edge
How to clear the Firefox cache
Clear Safari browsing history and cache
4. If the spots are all the same colour
Premium SunSPOT will not produce accurate results if the 3D mapping LiDAR data over your house was captured before your house was built or renovated. THe LiDAR shows SunSPOT the shape, slope and orientation of the roof planes. This allows SunSPOT to estimate the amount of electricity generated by the solar panels.
See the image below showing houses in a suburb that were built after the LiDAR was captured. The (brown dots) data reflect a flat ground surface because the houses were built after it was captured. The blue, purple and yellow dots look like trees that have since been removed.
We’ll soon be adding the LiDAR capture dates to the map in SunSPOT.
If the LiDAR is older than when your house was built (or when your house was renovated), you will need to toggle the switch that says “Some or all of my roof doesn’t show dots” and complete the process using the Standard SunSPOT.
Standard SunSPOT does not rely on LiDAR data. Instead, you will be asked to add information about nearby shading objects and the slope and orientation of the roof.
Above: The uniform, brown dots indicate a flat surface which would suggest the LiDAR data was captured before the houses were built.