Wind on a free-standing array behaves nothing like a rooftop one. This tool takes net pressures across the tilted row — both the front and the exposed rear face — in open terrain, then carries the uplift and overturning down to the piles, ballast, or anchors that hold the table in the ground. Launching soon.
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With no roof to hide behind, a ground array is loaded as an exposed inclined surface. The calculator treats it that way — full flow front and back, row by row, straight down to the ground.
Wind pushes on the upwind face and drags on the leeward one at the same time. The net pressure is the difference, and it swings with wind direction, so the tool works the loaded panel as the open inclined surface it is — not a coefficient borrowed from a roof.
The upwind row meets undisturbed flow and governs; rows behind it sit in its wake and see less. Set over open fields, the array is usually Exposure C or D, so there is no upwind roughness to bleed the speed off before it arrives.
A ground array fails at its feet. The tool carries net uplift and overturning down to the reactions the foundation must resist, so the pile embedment, ballast block, or helical anchor is checked against the real demand at each post line.
Four steps ordered the way a free-standing array is actually designed — site to foundation.
Design wind speed from the location and the exposure category for the open site.
Tilt, chord, ground clearance, and row spacing across the field.
Front-and-rear net loads by row, with the governing first-row case flagged.
Uplift and overturning resolved to post reactions for the report.
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Fix the row spacing and post schedule against first-row wind before the field layout is frozen.
Get the uplift and overturning at each post line to check pile embedment or anchor pull-out.
Rate torque tubes, posts, and bearings against the front-and-rear net load across tilt positions.
Tie the array wind demand into grading, drainage, and the post foundation package in one pass.
Sanity-check the structural assumptions behind a bid before the piles go in the ground.
Read a clear foundation-demand basis instead of a spreadsheet with no exposure or row logic shown.
Subscribe by category and run unlimited calculations.
Panels on the building — the §29.4 GCrn path.
Components & cladding for vertical walls and openings.
Full MWFRS analysis — directional & envelope methods.
Because the flow field is different. A rooftop module sits inside the building's separated flow and is covered by the §29.4 GCrn coefficients. A free-standing table has air on both sides and no building to shelter it, so it is treated as an open, elevated inclined surface with pressure on the front and rear faces — a separate analysis with its own governing cases.
The front row meets clean, undisturbed wind and almost always governs. Rows set behind it stand in that leading row's wake and pick up a reduced load, so spacing matters. The tool reports the first-row case and the sheltered interior case separately rather than applying one blanket pressure to the whole field.
Most ground arrays sit on flat, open land with little upwind roughness, which puts them in Exposure C, or Exposure D near large open water. That raises the velocity pressure compared with a built-up site, and it is one of the biggest reasons ground loads run higher than people expect.
The output resolves net uplift and overturning to the reactions at each post line, so you can check driven-pile embedment, size a ballast block for a non-penetrating table, or verify a helical or ground-screw anchor. You supply the soil and hardware capacities; the calculator supplies the demand.
Fixed-tilt tables are the first target. Tracker rows introduce stow-angle and dynamic considerations that go beyond a static pressure lookup, so those cases are on the roadmap and staged after the fixed-tilt release. Join the notify list and tell us your configuration so we build in the right order.
Yes. A licensed professional engineer can review and stamp the array and its foundation demand through the firm's engineer network, routed to a PE registered where the project is built. The software produces the calculation package; sealing is added as a separate professional service when the jurisdiction requires it.
The fixed-tilt ground-mount tool is in active development. Get on the notify list for first access; you are billed nothing until it is live and you pick a plan.
The ground-mount array calculator is in active development. Join the notify list for early access, or head to the rooftop calculator and try our free wind speed lookup while you wait.