OpenSolar provides a variety of options to tailor the customer’s electricity usage so their proposal is as accurate as possible. Below is the step-by-step guide on how to customize the customer's electricity usage.
This video will take you through modeling electricity usage
Selecting Electricity Usage
This article takes place in the Project zone, select the project you wish to work on and select the Energy tab.
From the Energy tab, locate the Electricity Usage section. Use the drop down to select the corresponding electricity usage for the selected project.
Entering Usage Data
OpenSolar provides a range of different options to input your customer's electricity usage depending on the available data at hand. Below are a list of options we provide:
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Description |
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OpenSolar Usage Estimates If you don't have the customer's electricity usage or bill, you can choose one of OpenSolar's usage estimations for the project location. |
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Default |
OpenSolar provides an estimate for the average usage in selected locations (Same as Estimate (Medium)) |
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Estimate (Low) |
OpenSolar provides an estimate that is below the average usage in selected locations. |
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Estimate (Medium) |
OpenSolar provides an estimate for the average usage in selected locations. |
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Estimate (High) |
OpenSolar provides an estimate that is above the average usage in selected locations. |
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Enter kWh Usage If you have your customers' electricity usage information, you can choose one of the below options to set the usage. |
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Daily Consumption kWh |
Enter up to 12 monthly average daily kWh values. Months with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
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Monthly Consumption kWh |
Enter up to 12 monthly kWh usage values. Months with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
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Quarterly Consumption kWh |
Enter up to 4 quarterly kWh usage values. Quarters with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
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Annual Consumption kWh |
Enter single kWh annual usage. |
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Hourly Interval |
Enter the kWH usage values in 15, 30, or 60-minute intervals. See this article for more information: How to Upload Interval Data |
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Enter Electricity Bill If you have your customer's electricity bill and have set your customer's electricity tariff (Please read this article on how to create custom tariff rates), OpenSolar can automatically calculate their total usage. |
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Annual Bill |
Enter a single annual bill. OpenSolar will attempt to interpolate the total usage based on the annual bill value and electricity tariff set. |
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Quarterly Bills |
Enter quarterly bills. OpenSolar will attempt to interpolate the usage based on the quarterly bills provided and the electricity tariff set. Quarters with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
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Monthly Bills |
Enter up to 12 monthly bills. OpenSolar will attempt to interpolate the usage based on the monthly bills provided and the electricity tariff set. Months with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
| Bi-monthly bill | Enter the bill for 2 months at a time. OpenSolar will attempt to interpolate the usage based on the monthly bills provided and the electricity tariff set. Months with missing values are interpolated by OpenSolar. |
Shaping Electricity Usage Profile
Note: This is NOT required if you entered in Hourly Interval data.
Once you have inputted data to usage data, you have a few additional settings that allow you to shape the electricity profiles to better match your customer's electricity usage behaviour.
Shaping Weekday & Weekend Daily Energy Profiles
Note: Setting the Weekday & Weekend curves will impact your customer's electricity bill if they are on a TOU tariff. It will also impact the total amount of self-consumption from your PV system design.
You can shape what the typical daily usage profiles are like for your customers by clicking on "show more" using the Weekday/Weekend Usage Curve boxes and selecting the option from the drop-down. If none are chosen it will default to Evening Peak.
OpenSolar offers a range of different Energy Profile shapes that you can select from. Below are a graphical illustration of these options:
Scaling contribution of Weekday to Weekend Usage
You also have the ability to scale the Weekend energy usage relative to the weekday usage. If, for example, 10% more energy is used on the weekend, you can enter 1.1 in this box. If 50% more energy, 1.5.
Setting Demand using 8760 values
If the demand is not set, OpenSolar currently assumes that the hourly usage profile is the same as your customer's maximum hourly demand. In almost all cases, your customer's maximum demand will be greater than the hourly usage profile and setting the demand will be important for demand charge calculations. You can upload kWH usage values in 15, 30, or 60-minute intervals. See this article for more information: How to Upload Interval Data
Setting Controlled Loads
If there are any controlled loads that are implemented in the household (such as a water heater) then you can enter in the daily usage (in kWh) of up to 3 in each of the boxes labelled Controlled Load 1/2/3 Daily Usage. Currently, controlled load usage by default is distributed between 12am - 5am.
After you have made your changes to this section, ensure that you click the button.
Comments
3 comments
I wonder if anyone agrees that there might be a benefit to having multiple electricity usage options that can then be selected in the Design tab
e.g.
- option 1 - solar system 8kWp - electricity usage 7kWh per day
- option 2 - solar system 5kWp - electricity usage 3kWh per day
I know there is a use case for my company but I don't know if others agree :)
Hi Tosin,
Thanks for reaching out.
Unfortunately, this is not possible on OpenSolar. I will need to submit this as an enhancement for the Product Team to review.
The current workaround suggested would be created different projects instead of system options to simulate different electricity usage.
Cheers,
Sam
I would like to be able to set the time frame and days of the week that the controlled load runs.
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