HelioScope now uses a standardized "ideal year" for financial modeling
We've updated how HelioScope's financial model handles time, making your savings and bill estimates more accurate and consistent.
What changed
Previously, each year of your project's cash flow was simulated against a real calendar year, starting from your system's estimated install date. Because real calendars vary, this had a couple of side effects: leap days appeared in some years, and any consumption data you uploaded wasn't always aligned to the same days of the week the model was billing against.
Now, every year of the simulation runs on a standardized "ideal year": 365 days, always beginning on Monday, January 1, and repeated across the full analysis period.
Why this is better
The new approach keeps everything aligned on the same calendar. Because production, consumption, and battery dispatch now share the same days of the week, weekday usage is billed at weekday rates and weekend usage at weekend rates. This means time-of-use energy charges and demand charges more closely reflect what a customer would actually be billed.
It also makes your results reproducible. The same project will return the same numbers every time, no matter when you run the simulation.
What you might notice
Your savings and bill figures may shift slightly compared to previous runs. This is expected—the updated numbers are more accurate.