Entering Inputs

ICON_Under-Construction

This is a new topic for SAM 2009 Beta.

This topic will describe a new feature in SAM 2009 Beta that did not exist in SAM 3.0. or information that was not included in older versions of Help.

The background color of text boxes provides information about the data in the box. On the View menu, click View Input Type Legend to display a legend of background colors.

Table 4. Description of text box background colors.

Background color	Description of variable type
White	User Specified: Data that you can edit by typing in the box.
Brown	Parametric: The variable is a parametric variable and has more than one value. The value in the box with the brown background is the base value of the parametric variable. Right-click the box to view all values. See Parametric Variables.
Yellow	CapturedFrom: The value is linked to a cell in a spreadsheet. Right-click the box to access the spreadsheet. See Working with external workbooks and UDVs.
Blue	Calculated: Values that Solar Advisor calculates based on the values of other input variables. For example, in the Module page, the Power box appears with a blue background because Solar Advisor calculates the module power using values for the module size and efficiency.
Blue type font	Referenced: This value from a different input page appears as part of the text on the current page.
Green	Schedule: A variable that has a different value for each year in the analysis period. For example, seven-year inverter replacement costs could be specified by defining the operation and maintenance Fixed (per year) cost variable on a schedule, with an annual payment every seven years. See Costs.