Month Factors Tab

The Month Factors Tab is used to view and edit end-use and monthly multipliers. The meaning of these multipliers depends on the type of end use that is involved.

  • XHeat, XCool. For end uses that contribute to the model variables XHeat and XCool, the monthly factors are used to represent the relative power of heating and cooling degrees in different months. In these cases, the factors are used directly as multipliers. For example, for cooling end uses the value could be set to .60 in April and 1.00 in July to indicate that the relative power of cooling degrees in April is about 60% of the power of the same degrees in July.
  • XOther, Technologies. For end uses that contribute to the XOther variable and for new technologies, the 12 monthly factors are used to allocate annual value to months. For each use, the factors are first normalized to have unit sum and are then used to allocate annual energy across months of the year.

The Month Factors Tab contains a standard list grid, with expansion controls [+] and [-] for each row. When a row is not expanded, there is one line for each set of factors, and that line shows the name of the set (Monthly Factor ID), the Description field, and a set of Custom fields that can be used to sort and filter the list.

The toolbar on the Monthly Factors Tab allows the user to Add, Delete, and Duplicate factor sets. Additional controls are available to Filter the list or to change the column order. Rows can also be added or modified through the Import Wizard, using:

  • Tools > Import > Long Term SAE End Use > Month Factor List

When a row is expanded by hitting the [+] button for that row, an embedded list is shown that contains the monthly data for the selected row. The embedded list has one group of rows for each end use and technology in the system, and should have 12 monthly values for each use. The embedded list contains the following fields:

  • EndUseKey. The name of the end use.
  • Mnth. The numeric value for the month.
  • Factor. The month factor for the end use and month.

The embedded list has standard functionality to drag a column into the Group-By bar and to then use the bar to filter the data, for example by selected end use or by selected year.

While the embedded data list can be used to edit data, this must be done one row at a time. These values can also be edited or augmented through the Import Wizard, using:

  • Tools > Import > Long Term SAE End Use > Month Factor Data