Solar roof
Usable roof for solar after setbacks and shade, how many panels, kW, kWh a year and payback.
What it answers
Section titled “What it answers”- Is my roof good for solar?
- How many panels fit and what would they save?
For the agent, the tool is described as: Rooftop solar for a house at a scan or a point in Houston or Los Angeles: roof facets with area, pitch and facing from Vexcel’s surface model, shading by trees and neighbours over a clear-sky year, usable area after 36 in fire-code setbacks and ridges, then panels, kW, annual kWh (PVWatts yield, labelled) and simple payback at a labelled electricity price. Draws the usable patches on the map.
Who it is for
Section titled “Who it is for”Houston homeowner before a storm, Homeowner considering solar.
Inputs
Section titled “Inputs”| Input | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
scan |
string | Scan id, if the site has one. Filled from the selected building. | ||
property_id |
integer | CoStar PropertyId, for a commercial address. | ||
lat |
number | Latitude, for an address with no scan. | ||
lon |
number | Longitude, for an address with no scan. | ||
cost_per_w |
number ($/W) | 2.75 |
Installed cost per watt before incentives. Saved preference solar.cost_per_w. Range: more than 0, at most 10. |
|
price_per_kwh |
number ($/kWh) | What a kWh from the grid costs you; the state average if empty. Saved preference solar.price_per_kwh. |
An input that nothing fills (the selected building, a saved preference, a persona’s preset) becomes a question to the person. The agent asks only for those.
Data used
Section titled “Data used”| Layer | Id | Needed | If it is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aerial property facts | vexcel.property |
required | The verdict is unknown, with the reason. |
| Roof heights | vexcel.dsm |
required | The verdict is unknown, with the reason. |
What it returns
Section titled “What it returns”A tool result: a verdict (pass, warn, fail or unknown), metrics, checks and findings, each with its source.
- Draws on the building: pins on what it found; a route with its narrow points.
- Panel blocks:
VerdictHeader,MetricRow,MiniChart,CheckList,AssumptionChips,StepLog. - Speed: fast. Read-only.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”Solar roof: how much of a roof can carry panels, how much sun it gets after trees and neighbours, and what a system would make and save, for any house in Houston or Los Angeles.
Reliability
Section titled “Reliability”Every metric and finding carries its layer, its method and a high, medium or low label, set by the tool for each value. See findings and reliability.
Limits
Section titled “Limits”- Needs: aerial property facts, roof heights. On a scan without them, the verdict is
unknownand says why. - A result is a planning aid, not an inspection.
On the made-up test home
Section titled “On the made-up test home”This section was written by running the tool when the docs were built, on a hand-made RoomPlan export (no real place was scanned), with no sponsor keys and the network switched off.
Cannot answer here Scan u_testhome0001 has no location (a phone scan carries none), so the aerial photo cannot be found. Give a latitude and longitude to run this on the site.
A phone scan has walls, doors, windows, rooms and objects, but no location, no photos and no property record.
Run it
Section titled “Run it”threshold run solar_roof --scan <scan-id>curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8787/api/tools/solar_roof/run -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{...inputs}'Over MCP the tool is named solar_roof. See MCP server and CLI.