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Solar Designer Book a demo

Roof to quote at the kitchen table.

Solar Designer is solar design and quoting software for New Zealand installers. Type the address and trace the roof on aerial imagery. It lays out the panels, works out the output and the customer’s business case, then sends the quote to Fergus.

Book a demo See how it works
  • Your brand, your web address
  • Works with Fergus
  • LINZ aerial imagery
  • Built in Auckland
Solar Designer's roof canvas: a house traced on aerial imagery, one roof face outlined and filled with eight panels, and the inspector showing the face's pitch, direction, layout and 4.1 kW.
Fig. 1Roof canvas Aerial imagery LINZ, CC BY 4.0
This roof face, a sample job: 8 panels, 4.08 kWp, 5,615 kWh a year, paid back in 8.9 years.

How does Solar Designer work?

Five steps, one sitting. The same sample job runs from top to bottom of this page, and every figure in it comes from Solar Designer’s own engine.

  1. Start with the address

    Start a quote with the customer’s name, address and yearly power use. Solar Designer finds the address and opens the roof on LINZ aerial imagery, the national aerial photography from Land Information New Zealand.

    • Open designs, quotes out and recent jobs on one home screen.
    • Search any past job by address or customer.
    • Designs that can’t be priced yet are flagged, with the reason.
    Solar Designer's home screen with sample projects: open designs, kilowatts quoted and quotes out, and the designs on the bench with each system's size, yearly output, self-use and payback.
    Fig. 2Home screen Shown with sample projects

  2. Trace the roof. The panels lay themselves out.

    Click around each roof face. As soon as it closes, Solar Designer reads which way the face points, keeps the setback from every edge, steps around the vents and skylights you’ve marked, and fills it with panels in whichever orientation fits more.

    Change the angle of the panels and the layout and the output follow. Try it on the sample roof.

    Trim the count from the ridge down, or move and rotate a panel by hand. Anything that lands off the roof is outlined in red.

    Sample roof face, laid out by Solar Designer Plan view of a roof face with 8 panels at 22.5° pitch, facing north-west, 329°.
    Fig. 3Layout engine 22.5° pitch · facing north-west, 329°
    The roof face traced in the canvas above, laid out by Solar Designer at each angle, with yearly output worked out for the site. The angle is the face’s pitch as set in the app: a steeper face has more roof over the same footprint, so it can fit more panels.

    Panel angle

    Facing

    Panels
    8 × 510 W
    System
    4.08 kWp
    Yield
    1,376 kWh per kW
    Output
    5,615 kWh a year

  3. The sun does the maths. You make the case.

    Output is worked out for every roof face from its pitch, the way it faces and the sun over that site, using long-term solar data for the location. Pick a power plan or use the rates off the customer’s bill, and Solar Designer builds the business case: price, year-one saving, payback and 25 years of cashflow.

    System
    4.08 kWp, 8 panels
    Price, incl. GST
    $10,900
    Output, first year
    5,615 kWh
    Generates
    83% of the household’s use
    Saving, first year
    $1,179
    Pays for itself in
    8.9 years
    Savings over 25 years
    $33,225

    Savings over 25 years, against the price

    $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 Price $10,900 Paid back in 8.9 years Year 0 5 10 15 20 25

    Output by month, kWh

    644 J 519 F 516 M 406 A 337 M 283 J 313 J 384 A 463 S 552 O 585 N 614 D
    Fig. 4Business case Sample job, over 25 years
    Sample job, worked out by Solar Designer’s financial model: the roof face above at a sample price and a sample power plan of 30c per kWh in and 12c per kWh out, 6,800 kWh a year of household use, half the solar used at home. Panels lose 0.5% of output a year and power prices rise 2% a year. Savings are shown before the price is taken off.

  4. Your brand on every page.

    The proposal goes out in your name, not ours: your logo, your colours, your contact details and your wording, from a web address that’s yours. The app your team uses carries your brand too.

    • A cover with the roof and the panels on it.
    • The recommended system, face by face.
    • Your equipment, with warranties.
    • Performance against the household’s own power use.
    • The savings, the payback and the assumptions behind them.
    • Carbon saved, and your terms.

    The customer sees the total price, including GST. Your costs, margins and labour stay inside the app.

    Every proposal is frozen and versioned when it’s made, so editing your catalogue never changes one you’ve already sent.

    The top of the sample proposal, close up: Example Solar Co.'s sun mark and name, an orange rule, and the prepared-by, customer and quote details.
    Proposal cover for a sample installer, Example Solar Co.: the roof aerial with the panels drawn on it, the customer and quote details, and a covering letter.Proposal page describing the recommended system: its size, panel count, yearly output and price, with the roof layout and a table of each roof face.Proposal page on performance and savings: output against the household’s use by month, the saving in the first year, the payback and the benefit over 25 years.
    Fig. 5Proposal: letterhead and pages 1, 3 and 5 Example Solar Co. is a sample brand

  5. Quote here. Win it in Fergus.

    When we set you up, we load your Fergus price book into your catalogue. When the quote’s ready, one click puts it into Fergus.

    When the customer accepts in Fergus, Solar Designer marks the quote accepted. Invoicing stays in Fergus, where it already is.

    If Fergus is unreachable part-way, the push picks up where it stopped and never creates a duplicate.

    Book a demo
    Push quote to Fergus One click

    1. Customer created

      Morgan

    2. Site created

      12 Example Street, Auckland

    3. Job created

      Solar installation, 4.1 kW

    4. Quote added

      Equipment and labour sections, valid for 30 days

    5. Proposal attached

      The PDF proposal, on the job

    6. Quote published

      Ready to send from Fergus

    Later, in Fergus

    1. Customer accepts the quote

      Solar Designer marks it accepted automatically

    Fig. 6Push to Fergus Sample job, as Solar Designer runs it

Private by default.

Solar Designer runs in the cloud and in the browser, so there’s nothing to install and nothing to patch.

  • Every screen sits behind staff sign-in.
  • Strong passwords, never stored as plain text.
  • Each installer gets its own private deployment and database, shared with no one.
  • Proposal links are signed and expire within minutes.
  • Your data is locked down in the database as well as in the app.
  • Every form and upload is checked before it’s saved.

Made here. Supported here.

Solar Designer is built and supported in Auckland by the people who wrote it.

How set-up works

  1. We set it up in your brand, on your own web address.
  2. We load your catalogue from your Fergus price book, with your labour rates and New Zealand power plans.
  3. Your team signs in and starts quoting.

Made for New Zealand from the ground up: LINZ imagery, New Zealand retailer power plans, GST, and New Zealand’s own emissions factor for the carbon figures.

Everything else in the box

Inverter recommendation
The best-priced inverter from your catalogue that suits the array, and a hybrid when there’s a battery.
Battery suggestion
A battery from your catalogue suggested for the household’s daily use. Add it and self-consumption is adjusted to match.
Power plans
New Zealand retailer plans kept in the app, or the rates off the customer’s own bill. A plan not checked in 90 days is flagged.
Quote checks
A warning when the price per watt is out of range, labour isn’t booked or mounting is missing from the quote.
Itemised internal quote
Equipment, extras and labour hours, with GST and margin, for your eyes only.
Your catalogue
Panels, inverters, batteries, EV chargers, mounting and accessories, each with a SKU, warranty and proposal description.
Carbon figures
Tonnes of CO₂ saved a year and over 25 years, using New Zealand’s own emissions factor.
Made for the iPad
Large touch targets, inputs that don’t zoom the page, and the roof kept in view while you work.

Common questions

What is Solar Designer?
Solar Designer is solar design and quoting software for New Zealand residential solar installers. It takes a job from the customer’s address to a priced design, a PDF proposal in the installer’s brand, and a published quote in Fergus, in one sitting.
Does Solar Designer lay out the panels automatically?
Yes, once the roof is traced. You click around each roof face on the aerial imagery, and when the outline closes Solar Designer fills it with panels: it keeps the setback, avoids the vents and skylights you’ve marked, and picks portrait or landscape, whichever fits more. You can then trim the count or move panels by hand.
Can I change the angle of the panels?
Yes. Set the pitch of each roof face, flip or square the way it faces, or rotate individual panels. Solar Designer re-lays the face and works the output and payback out again from the new angles.
How does Solar Designer calculate solar output?
It works out each roof face separately from the site’s location, the face’s pitch and the direction it faces, using long-term solar data for that location. The faces are added together for the system’s monthly and yearly output.
What’s in the customer’s business case?
The system price including GST, the saving in the first year, the payback in years, 25 years of cashflow and the total savings, how much of the household’s power the system covers, and the carbon saved. The assumptions behind them, such as panel degradation and power price rises, are stated with them.
What does Solar Designer send to Fergus?
One click creates the customer, the site, a job and a published quote in Fergus, with equipment and labour sections and the PDF proposal attached. When the customer accepts the quote in Fergus, Solar Designer marks it accepted. Invoicing is done in Fergus, and your Fergus price book is loaded into your catalogue when we set you up.
Can Solar Designer carry my own branding?
Yes. Each installer gets its own deployment, on its own web address, with its own logo, colours, contact details and proposal wording. We do the set-up for you.
Where does the aerial imagery come from?
From Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), the official aerial photography of the country.
Does it size inverters and batteries?
It recommends an inverter from your catalogue that suits the array, choosing a hybrid when a battery is on the quote, and warns when a choice doesn’t fit. It suggests a battery sized to the household’s daily use. String design is left to your installer on site.
Does it work on an iPad?
Yes. It runs in the browser and is built for the iPad at the customer’s table, with large touch targets and the roof kept in view while you work. It works on a laptop too.
Is our data secure?
Yes. Every screen needs a staff sign-in, each installer has its own private deployment and database, and customers only ever see the total price, never your costs or margins.
Does Solar Designer model shading?
Not today. Output comes from each face’s pitch, direction and location, and you mark vents, skylights and flues so no panel goes over them.
How much does Solar Designer cost?
Pricing depends on your set-up, so book a demo and we’ll talk it through.

Book a demo

We’ll take a job from address to Fergus quote with you, and talk through setting Solar Designer up in your brand.

What happens next

  1. Send the form.
  2. We reply by email to set a time.
  3. We walk you through a job, then talk pricing and set-up.
Do you use Fergus?

Need something built to order? We make custom apps too.

Start a project