What Cali-Graf does

One calculation is one home: you find the address, draw the roof, enter the usage and the price, and Cali-Graf turns it into numbers the homeowner can check against their own bills — and into a proposal you can hand them the same day.

What you can do

• Design the roof. Trace roof faces on Google aerial imagery. Cali-Graf measures each face’s pitch and direction from Google’s 3D height data, draws California or City of Los Angeles fire setbacks, and fills the roof with panels around chimneys, vents and skylights.
• Choose equipment. Panels, inverters and batteries from the California Energy Commission lists, with a check that they work together.
• Enter usage. From the customer’s bills, a yearly total or a Green Button file from the utility.
• Calculate. Production for every hour of the year with shade from trees and neighbors, the electric bill before and after solar under the utility’s real rates and net metering rules, 25-year savings and payback.
• Make the proposal. A short PDF with the customer’s home on the cover, the system, the savings, the price and how they pay, and your business card on every page.
• Compare options. Copy a calculation to show the customer a second option — a battery, a different panel, a smaller system.

Where the numbers come from

Cali-Graf uses public sources, not guesses: Google’s aerial imagery and roof height data, NREL weather data for the home’s location, equipment specs from the California Energy Commission, and LADWP and SCE rate books. The usage shape comes from studies of thousands of similar Los Angeles homes, fitted to the customer’s own bills.

Who it’s for

Solar installers and sales reps who design and sell rooftop systems to homeowners in the Los Angeles area — homes served by LADWP or SCE. It runs in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone, and it’s free.

What it isn’t

Cali-Graf is a design and sales tool. It doesn’t produce permit plan sets or electrical and structural engineering, and it doesn’t replace a site visit. Its results are estimates: check every number before you give a proposal to a customer. What isn’t supported yet is listed in What Cali-Graf doesn’t do yet.