How OpenSolar calculates financial savings

In a proposal you create in OpenSolar, there are quite a few sections where you see key financial figures and savings. This article goes over the inputs used to calculate financial figures and how you can learn more about correctly including each figure. 

The following video will walk you through the inputs of the calculations. 

Core areas affecting the financial impact of the system:

Your customer's energy usage patterns and utility bill

OpenSolar calculates your customer's utility bill based on:

• The customer's annual kWh consumption
• The customer's usage patterns
• The utility rate before and after solar

In Project > Energy you include your customer's annual energy consumption, determine usage patterns, and set the utility tariff.

• See a detailed explanation of how the utility bill is calculated here

Note: Pros sometimes experience issues with manually created utility rates. If a rate you'd like to use is not in our system, the best practice is to send the utility rate sheet to OpenSolar and our team will add this to the database. 

How a solar system is designed

The total annual generation of a solar system will directly affect the financial savings. The output is affected by:

• Equipment used and its specifications and efficiencies 
• Location of your project / solar system (slope, azimuth, etc)
• How an inverter is sized and whether there is stringing
• Whether a battery is included
• How the battery is set to charge and discharge
• Shading

OpenSolar's modeling accuracy has been verified in a third party assessment conducted by PVEL. 

Adjust these settings in Project > Design, where you build the design for your customer. 

Financial simulation settings

After we have calculated the electricity bill savings, we can calculate the financial impact of the system. We model the cash flow year by year over the lifetime of the system, which allows for the key financial metrics.

This step takes into account:

• Pricing of the system
• Incentives applied that markdown the price of the system
• Method of payment for the system (upfront cash payment, financing etc)
• Financial simulation settings (inflation of energy prices, years to simulate, etc)

Adjust the proposal to show financial impact

Admins on an account can edit the proposal template to include specific figures and charts in regards to the finances. 

By editing the proposal template, you can control which financial figures are highlighted at the top of the proposal. Options include: utility savings, payback, discounted payback, first year savings, net present value, and more. 

You can also include detailed tables such as "Bill Savings Table" and "Financial Benefits Detailed":

Bill Savings Table:

Financial Benefits Detailed: