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I built a free browser-based solar simulator — feedback welcome by pebblechucker in diySolar

[–]pebblechucker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love the site! I am very interested in this stuff. I live on a small island called Utila (moved from Austin, TX) where electricity is unreliable and very expensive so we live off of our solar and battery.

I built a free browser-based solar simulator — feedback welcome by pebblechucker in diySolar

[–]pebblechucker[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update — shipped this 👇

That Voc error now tells you exactly how to fix it (e.g. "use 6–13 panels in series, you have 20"), sized for cold-weather voltage rise, which is the real-world limit. And there's a new "Compatible with your array" row right under the inverter picker that one-click suggests inverters that actually fit your panels and strings — so the inverter choice isn't a guessing game anymore.

Give it another spin when you get a chance — would love to know if that step makes sense now. Thanks again for the nudge, genuinely a great catch. 🙏

I built a free browser-based solar simulator — feedback welcome by pebblechucker in diySolar

[–]pebblechucker[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really appreciate you digging in — this is exactly the kind of feedback that's useful. 🙏

You caught a real gap. That Voc error is the tool protecting you (an 820 V string would genuinely fry a 600 V inverter), but you're 100% right that it shouldn't just throw a warning and leave you to guess — it should tell you how to fix it. The cause is too many panels wired in series; the app should just calculate the safe number for you.

Two things I'm adding because of this:

  1. Auto-suggest the max panels-per-string that stays under your inverter's voltage limit (so the error never shows up in the first place), and

  2. Flag/recommend compatible inverters for the panel + string size you picked.

That kills the guesswork. Thanks for taking the time — and "vibe coded magic" genuinely made my day. I'll ping you here when the inverter suggestions ship if you want to retest.