Equipment covers the priced parts and services that do not belong in the panel, inverter, battery, DC optimiser, MID, or racking-system catalogues. Equipment can be added manually to a quote, included automatically on new quotes, priced from live design quantities, or used as a component inside a racking system.
Use the correct product type
- Equipment: balance-of-system parts, accessories, field materials, services, and the individual SKUs used inside racking kits.
- DC Optimisers: module-level devices with electrical limits used by inverter and string validation.
- MIDs: gateways, transfer equipment, meter collars, and other grid-isolation devices used by storage designs and SLDs.
- Racking Systems: named kits that connect equipment parts to design roles and generate a takeoff.
Do not create an optimiser or MID as generic equipment when Powerlily needs its electrical specifications. Likewise, an individual rail, clamp, attachment, or flashing remains an Equipment record, while the complete assembly belongs in Racking Systems.
Adding equipment
Copy a shared product from the Powerlily library when available, or create an item manually. Equipment forms autosave each field.
Product fields
- Name: the label shown in the catalogue, quotes, invoices, and racking components.
- Category: groups the item for browsing and filtering.
- Brand and model: identify the manufacturer and exact SKU where applicable.
- Value: the default unit price used when the item is added to a quote.
- Warranty: the published warranty term.
- Description, media, and documents: customer-facing information and supporting product files.
- Show in Catalogue: controls whether the item is offered for normal team selection.
Pricing basis
The pricing basis tells Powerlily how to calculate quantity. Fixed quantity is entered manually. Dynamic bases read the current quote or 3D design and recalculate when the design changes.
System-based pricing
- Per panel
- Per array
- Per inverter
- Per battery
- Per kW of DC capacity
- Per kWh of storage
Racking-takeoff pricing
- Per linear foot of rail
- Per rail or splice
- Per attachment
- Per mid clamp or end clamp
- Per ballast block
- Per linear foot of array perimeter
Roof and site-work pricing
- Per roofing square
- Per square foot of roof surface or net roof surface
- Per square foot of roof plan area or net plan area
- Per roof facet
- Per linear foot of trench
Use Basis Multiplier when more than one unit is required for each measured component, such as two clips per panel. Dynamic quantities can legitimately be zero until the quote contains the matching design component.
Include in new quotes
Turn on Include in New Quotes for a standard item that should be added whenever a quote is created. The equipment record’s pricing basis and multiplier become the starting rules for that quote line.
Use this selectively. A universal administrative or service item may suit every quote, but roof-specific parts are usually better driven by a selected racking system or added for the individual project.
Equipment and racking systems
A racking system is assembled from Equipment records. Each part is assigned a role such as rail, splice, attachment, flashing, clamp, ballast block, tilt leg, grounding lug, wire clip, or critter guard.
When a design uses that racking system, Powerlily saves a takeoff for the kit and creates the corresponding equipment lines. Each kit prices only the facets that use it, allowing a project with different roof or ground-mount systems to maintain separate bills of material.
Racking-owned equipment quantities are regenerated when the design is saved. Edit the racking system or its component rules when the calculated bill of material is wrong rather than manually changing those generated lines.
Categories
Available equipment categories include racks, rapid shutdowns and MCIs, AC and DC disconnect equipment, attachments, flashings, junction boxes, service panels, revenue-grade meters, cabling and accessories, communications, charge controllers, critical-load centres, automatic transfer switches, generators, EV chargers, and other items.
DC optimisers and MIDs now have dedicated catalogue types, so use those purpose-built records instead of treating them as ordinary equipment.
Before relying on dynamic pricing
- Confirm the unit price represents one unit of the selected basis.
- Check the basis multiplier.
- Save the 3D design so the latest takeoff is available.
- Review the quote’s design bill of materials and generated racking lines.
- Keep individual racking parts in Equipment and assemble their roles under Racking Systems.
Related articles
- Building Your Panel Catalogue. Set up the primary product used by array and pricing calculations.
- Designing Your First System in 2D and 3D. Use catalogue products and design-driven pricing on a quote.
- Working with Roofs, Arrays, Setbacks, and Obstructions. See where roof geometry and array quantities come from.
- Generating Single-Line Diagrams and Plan Sets. Understand how design equipment flows into project drawings.
