Consumption task
This guide applies to the easy-pv.co.uk and easy-pv.ie versions of Easy PV, references to MCS only apply to the UK site. The information provided here may not be accurate for easy-pv.com and easy.pv.ie.
The consumption task is alternative to the MCS self-consumption calculation completed in the performance task. Unlike with MCS, the Easy PV self consumption task can be used for projects larger than 6000 kWh and with batteries larger than 15.1 kW.
If you would like to use the Easy PV self-consumption calculation in your project, make sure it is selected in the financial task.
Annual consumption
There are a number of options for adding the annual consumption.
- Annual usage: If you know the annual consumption (for example from an electricity bill) you can enter it via the 'Annual usage' option. Here you can also select from a variety of domestic and commercial consumption profiles to ensure the pattern of usage matches the property, hover over the ⓘ to see further information on the profiles.
- Meter data: If the property has a smart meter and you can upload half-hourly data to get a more accurate projections. The data should ideally span at least a year, and must be a minimum of 6 months, although our algorithm will automatically attempt to fill in small gaps where they are detected. The file must have a .csv file extension. If your data is in another format you can export it as csv from Excel, Google Sheets, Libreoffice or any other spreadsheet editor.
Note that there are many different CSV formats for smart meter data, and we don't support all of them yet. If your upload doesn't work, please send us the spreadsheet at help@easy-pv.co.uk or help@easy-pv.ie and we will see if we can add the format. You can also download our sample spreadsheet here and change your data into this format.
- Not sure: If you don't know the electricity consumption in the property and it's domestic, you can use a typical values for the size of property provided here.
Tariffs
By default, we'll calculate the financial benefits using your default flat tariffs which you can specify in your financial settings. Alternatively, you can create and select a new tariff by selecting + New import/export tariff.
See here for a full guide on creating tariffs in Easy PV.
Export limitation
In this section you can limit the export rate if this is required by the DNO.
Self-consumption calculation, savings and battery usage
Once you are happy with the consumption and tariffs, select submit. You can then explore how the PV generation, consumption within the property, state of charge of the battery (if a battery is included) and imports and exports change through the year and over the course of each day.