After food, shelter and clothing, the next basic need of human is electricity. Electricity is the bane of a nation’s economy and the search for readily available energy leads man to discover other cheaper source of alternative energy.

In African, solar energy is the most favored source of electrical energy because of the abundance sunlight in the continent. However the cost of acquiring a solar energy system is a major challenge, not because the components itself are expensive but because people cannot logically estimate the required number of component required to setup a solar energy system based on their energy needs and budget.

If people can perform energy audit by themselves, they can be able to know the recommended Inverter and number of Batteries they need. Secondly, sunlight intensity differ in many regions of the world, so if people know the amount of sunlight they have in an average day, they can estimate the number of panels and charge controllers they need based on their region. Thus higher the intensity, the lower the number of panels to buy.

IQSolar is an intelligent solar app that lets users perform basic solar calculations, to determine the types and number of Solar Panels, Batteries, Inverter and Charge Controller required to build a solar energy system based on the user’s Energy needs and Budget.
In addition, once the user has determined the type and number of component required to setup a solar energy system, IQSolar automatically creates a quotation for the user.

There are 3 types of Solar Installation
1 Backup Installation
2 Stand Alone Installation
3 Hybrid Installations

FEAUTURES
1 Energy Audit
Energy Auditing is the first step a user takes when trying to install a solar energy system. The total wattage of your appliance plays a major role in your budget. Once the app has recognized the user’s total watt consumption, it will recommend the best inverter size, battery type, number of battery and battery duration to the user.

2 Backup Calculations
A backup installation consists of Inverter and a large number of batteries for operation. Here the user relies on the energy from the power grid or diesel generator to charge the batteries effectively.
There is no solar panel required, hence the user has to make up enough batteries should incase the power grid fails to fully charge the battery. If the user wants 24hrs supply, the number of battery is determined by the total wattage of the user’s appliance and number of hours available for charging from the power grid.

3 Stand Alone Calculation
The user is completely independent from the power grid and only the power from the sun is enough to charge the batteries. Thus it is considered the most expensive form of installation.
If the user wants 24hours supply, the number of panels is determined by the number of batteries, number of available sunlight and the type of charge controller used.

4 Hybrid Calculations
Hybrid combines different source of electricity (power grid, diesel generator, sunlight) to charge the battery to its full capacity. It is recommended for users that wants to upgrade from backup to using panels or users who can’t afford the cost of solar installation.
The number of panels required in hybrid is determined from the number of batteries, type of controller and the hours required for charging; from the grid, diesel generator and sunlight.

5 Series & Parallel Calculation
Solar Engineers/ Installers sometimes make mistake in arranging batteries and Solar panels into series and parallel configuration especially when handling a lot of components. This feature can help classify any number of panels into 12v, 24v, 36v and 48v system.

6 Budgets
Quotation are inbuilt in every calculation listed above, IQSolar automatically creates a quotation for the user.


Release date
The app is officially going to be released on google play store on the 15th of July, 2016. This is for the public to rate and give feedback to the developer. If you want to install the pre-release version of the app on your phone, leave you gmail account.

This thread is to get feedback from members of this forum, if there is any solar calculation feature you'd like the developer to add, please indicate before the official release date.

Highlight of IQSolar features
• It can calculate the total wattage of your appliance.
• It recommends the best Inverter Size based on the wattage of your total appliance.
• It recommends the number of batteries based on the wattage of your appliance and the number of hours the users wants for a day.
• It recommends the number of solar panels based on the number of batteries, sunlight intensity and charge controller type.
• It recommends a solar charge controller based on the size of panels.
• Series & Parallel connection configuration for Batteries and Panels.
• It automatically creates you a quotation after calculation.
• Access to current price list worldwide.
• It is flexible; allows you to make changes that suit your budget.

You did a commendable job by helping people solve energy need. However i feel that you should have auto generated price in the quotation of the app. All the same, nice apps.

I got the download link on google if you want to download
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_chappelle09.Solarapp

Thanks, i will incorporate that in the next update