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Generate detailed racking bill of materials using Solargraf

Home » All » Generate detailed racking bill of materials using Solargraf

Generating an accurate bill of materials is of paramount importance to have a clean and efficient Solar installation journey. It reduces the number of re-orders to distributors thus eliminating potential installation delays to homeowners. Mindful of this key challenge, Solargraf is partnering with key racking providers to make their proprietary bill of material calculator available in Solargraf.

What is racking bill of materials (BOM)

Racking Bill of Materials (BOM) corresponds to a list of all the parts, components, and quantities needed to assemble a specific racking system for solar panel installation. It functions as a blueprint document ensuring that the correct materials are procured and used, which helps streamline the installation process, reduce errors, manage costs, and ensure the final product meets design specifications.

A comprehensive racking BOM should include the following information:

  • Category: Material category to which the part belongs
  • Manufacturer: Manufacturer name of the part
  • Model: Model name of the part
  • SKU: SKU ID as per the part datasheet
  • Quantity: Quantity of the parts required for the project
Category Material Quantity SKU
Racks XR-100, 168" (14') Black 16 XR-100-168B
Racks Bonded Splice, XR100 10 XR100-BOSS-01-M1
Cables and accessories Universal Module Clamp, Black 44 UFO-CL-01-B1
Cables and accessories End Fastening Object (End Clamp, 30-40mm), Black 20 UFO-END-01-B1
Cables and accessories End Grounding Lug, Low Profile 5 XR-LUG-04-A1
Attachments FlashFoot2, Black 54 FF2-02-B2
Attachments Square Bolt, Bonding Hardware 54 BHW-SQ-03-A1

Calculating a comprehensive racking bill of material is challenging due to lack of technical expertise about the parts, as well as diverse roof/solar conditions that affect the part types and quantities. Creating in-house tools or excel models will be time-consuming and error prone. Lucky for installers, Racking OEMs have created detailed BOM calculators that can create accurate outputs given the design inputs are accurate.

How to generate racking bill of materials in Solargraf

Once a design is created in Solargraf, users have an option to generate racking Bill of Materials (BOM) at Project overview -> Materials page.

Solargraf generates detailed racking BOM as per the racking provider’s design logic. You can view the BOM as table and export the same as a CSV document

Once generated a BOM, you can recalculate BOM if any design modifications done and re-download the BOM as a CSV document

In today’s evolving energy landscape, racking OEMs are introducing new and efficient racking solutions frequently that has different methodologies to calculate BOM. Having an OEM provided racking BOM tool helps installers to focus on homeowner’s installation experience and reduce procurement errors during the design process.