How to Change the Financial Simulation Settings

This article is in the Control section of the App.  

From the Control page, go to design & hardware > setbacks & design settings

From here, edit your current settings preset, or create one.

Click on the Simulation Settings (Duration, electricity price inflation, incentives) heading. 

In this section of the presets page you have the ability to change a number of financial and energy calculations:

•  Years to simulate - This refers to the number of years which the energy and financial simulations will be run for by default. You can change this to a lower number than the default on a per system basis in Studio in order to simulate different systems for different amounts of time. The default value is 20 years. 
• Performance Adjustment - This refers to the performance of the PV. You can read more about it here. 
• Utility Inflation Annual - This refers to the variable which is used for financial calculations. By default it is 3% p.a.
• Feed-in Tariff Inflation - This refers to the annual inflation which will impact the feed-in tariffs used in OpenSolar. 
• Usage Adjustment after sale - This field allows you to model the customer's energy use amounts changing after the solar sale. This is done on a % basis and applies each year after the solar is installed. 
• Discount Rate - This refers to the discount rate used for financial calculations, the default value is 6.75%  

Once you have finished editing, then ensure that you press the  button at the bottom of the page.