PVopti - hourly based energy balance for building design

Abstract

PVopti is a freeware tool to calculate hourly energy balance for different building types. It is simple to use and it quickly calculates self-consumption for different designs. Load profiles according to SIA 2024 are used to distribute yearly values on hours. For demand of lighting a criterion for daylight is added. Compared with measurements of single family houses and apartment buildings, self-consumption calculated with PVopti shows very good agreement. Currently, a German version is available on www.minergie.ch, soon there will be versions for 4 languages (dt, fr, it, en).