The Hourly PV Performance Data

• About The Hourly PV Performance Data
  
  • Format
  • Example


• Saving The Hourly PV Performance Data To an MS Excel^™ File
  • In Netcape or MS Internet Explorer™
  • In Other Web Browsers


• Saving The Hourly PV Performance Data To a Text File
  
  • In MS Internet Explorer™
  • In Netscape, Opera, Mozilla or Safari

The values reported for AC power in the PVWATTS Hourly Performance Data Output are associated with the preceding
hour; i.e., the hour ending at the time indicated. Time is reported as Local Standard Time (LST). Daylight Savings Time
(DST) is not used.

• FORMAT

  The Hourly PV Perfromance Data output has the following format:

  • Header:
    • Title
    
    
    • Site Information:
      1. City
      2. State
      3. Latitdue (degrees N)
      4. Longitide (degrees W)
      5. Elevation (meters)
    • PV System Information:
      1. Array Type
      2. Array Titl (degrees from horizontal)
      3. Array Azimuth (degrees from South-facing)
      4. DC Rating (kW)
      5. DC to AC Derate Factor (unitless)
      6. AC Rating (kW)
  • Data:
    • Column Headings
    
    
    • Values:
      1. Date-Time Stamp:
         • Year^*
         • Month
         • Day
         • Hour (LST)
      
      
      2. AC Power in Watts

                                                                                                           
    ^*NOTE: Year is TMY2 Year; i.e., the year from which the
                  associated month's data, determined to be
                  "meteorologically typical" for the site, was taken.
                                                                                                           




• EXAMPLE

  "PVWATTS: Hourly PV Performance Data" "City:","DODGE_CITY" "State:","KS" "Lat (deg N):", 37.77 "Long (deg W):", 99.97 "Elev (m):", 787 "Array Type:","Fixed Tilt" "Array Tilt (deg):", 37.8 "Array Azimuth (deg):", 180.0 "DC Rating (kW):", 4.0 "DC to AC Derate Factor:", 0.690 "AC Rating (kW):", 2.8 "Year", "Month", "Day", "Hour", "AC Power (W)" 1971, 1, 1, 01:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 02:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 03:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 04:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 05:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 06:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 07:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 08:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 09:00, 594 1971, 1, 1, 10:00, 1371 1971, 1, 1, 11:00, 1404 1971, 1, 1, 12:00, 2086 1971, 1, 1, 13:00, 2303 1971, 1, 1, 14:00, 2245 1971, 1, 1, 15:00, 927 1971, 1, 1, 16:00, 1109 1971, 1, 1, 17:00, 250 1971, 1, 1, 18:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 19:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 20:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 21:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 22:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 23:00, 0 1971, 1, 1, 24:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 01:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 02:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 03:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 04:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 05:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 06:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 07:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 08:00, 0 1971, 1, 2, 09:00, 134 1971, 1, 2, 10:00, 136 1971, 1, 2, 11:00, 387 1971, 1, 2, 12:00, 734 1971, 1, 2, 13:00, 667 1971, 1, 2, 14:00, 632

The output seen in the previous windw, PVWATTS: Hourly PV Performance Data, exist only in your browser window.
In order to save it to your harddrive you will need to do the following:

• In Netscape or MS Internet Explorer^™, on PC or Macintosh:
  1. Make the window containing the hourly output active, either by clicking on it or by selecting it from the
     Window menu.
  
  
  2. In the Edit menu, click Select All.
  
  
  3. Next, copy the data by choosing Copy from the Edit menu.
  
  
  4. Open a new plain text document in your favorite text editor; e.g., WordPad (PC), BBEdit (Mac).
  
  
  5. Choose Paste from the text editor's Edit menu.
  
  
  6. Save the new file to your hard drive as plin text, giving it an appropriate name with file extension ".csv";
     e.g., DodgeCity4kW.csv.
  
  
  7. To open the new file as a spreadsheet,
     • On a MacIntosh computer: drag-n-drop the file or icon onto the MS Excel^™ icon.
     • On a Windows PC: Double-click the filename or icon to open it in MS Excel^™.


• In Web Other Browsers:

  This option has not yet been tested in other browsers. Information relevant to saving the Hourly
  Performance data in an Excel^™ file from these browsers will be added to this page shortly.

The output seen in the previous windw, PVWATTS: Hourly PV Performance Data, exist only in your browser window.
In order to save it to your harddrive you will need to do the following:

• In MS Internet Explorer™:
  1. Make the window containing the hourly output active, either by clicking on it or by selecting it from the
     Window menu.
  
  
  2. From the browser's File menu choose Save As.
  
  
  3. Change to file name, if desired.
  
  
  4. Indicate where you wish to have the file saved.
  
  
  5. Select file format Plain Text.
  
  
  6. Click Save.
  
  


• In Netscape, Opera, Mozilla or Safari:
  1. Make the window containing the hourly output active,
     either by clicking on it or by selecting it from the Window menu.
  
  
  2. In the Edit menu, click Select All.
  
  
  3. Next, select Copy from the Edit menu.
  
  
  4. Open a new plain text document in your favorite text editor.
  
  
  5. Select Paste from the Edit menu.
  
  
  6. Save the new text file to your hard drive, giving it an appropriate name.
  
  

The new file can be imported into MS Excel™ as a comma delimited text file. To import the file into Excel

• in Windows:
  1. From the Data menu choose Import External Data => Import Data
  2. Find and select your text file in the Select Data Source window
  3. Select "Delimited" in Step 1 of the Text Import Wizard and click "Next"
  4. Deselect "Tab" and select "Comma" under "Delimiters" in Step 2; for Text Qulaifier, select the quotation mark (")
  5. Click "Finish"
  6. Unless you want to place your data elsewhere in the spreadsheet than the top left hand corner, clcik "OK"
  7. To allow for adjusting the width of your first column, select the cell containing the text "PVWATTS: Hourly PV Perfromance Data" and the four cells to its right; in the Fomrat menu choose "Cells"; in the Format Cells" window choose the "Alignment" tab and check "Merge Cells", then click "OK". Now you can adjust the width of the first column
  8. Save your spreadsheet in the desired format.
• In Mac OSX:
  1. From the Data menu choose Get External Data => Import Text File...
  2. Find and select your text file in the Choose a File window
  3. Select "Delimited" in Step 1 of the Text Import Wizard and click "Next"
  4. Deselect "Tab" and select "Comma" under "Delimiters" in Step 2; for Text Qulaifier select the quotation mark (")
  5. Click "Finish"
  6. Unless you want to place your data elsewhere in the spreadsheet than the top left hand corner, clcik "OK"
  7. To allow for adjusting the width of your first column, select the cell containing the text "PVWATTS: Hourly PV Perfromance Data" and the four cells to its right; in the Fomrat menu choose "Cells"; in the Format Cells" window choose the "Alignment" tab and check "Merge Cells", then click "OK".
  8. Save your spreadsheet in the desired format.

Please send questions and comments to webmaster

Disclaimer and copyright notice.