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Losses usage unclear in PVSystem and ModelChain User Guide
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Issue pertains to UserGuide. There are 2 issues I see:
- In the Losses section of the PV System User Guide, the current wording doesn't clearly indicate what goes into this argument.
The losses_parameters attribute contains data that may be used with methods that calculate system losses. At present, these methods include only pvlib.pvsystem.PVSystem.pvwatts_losses() and pvlib.pvsystem.pvwatts_losses(), but we hope to add more related functions and methods in the future.
I think the assumption is that the user knows that input into losses_parameters
is a dictionary of losses. With the current wording, I go to the link, then run
pvwatts_losses(soiling=2, shading=3, snow=0, mismatch=2, wiring=2, connections=0.5, lid=1.5, nameplate_rating=1, age=0, availability=3)
which gives me a float. If I then take this float and use it as an argument to losses_parameters
, I get an error.
- The ModelChain UserGuide doesn't say anything about specifying losses and how these losses pertain to the losses specified
PVSystem
. May be obvious to an experienced user, but not clear to a new user.
i.e. if we specify a losses_parameters
in PVSystem
but no losses_model
in ModelChain
does that do anything? Or vice versa?
Describe the solution you'd like For point
- I would rephrase that part as:
The losses_parameters attribute contains data that may be used with methods that calculate system losses. This argument accepts a dictionary of losses, as per the losses seen here......
It would also be helpful to just include an example of a PVSystem with losses in this section.
- In
ModelChain
Include section explaining how these 2 loss arguments interact with each other. Also include an example ModelChain with alosses_model
.
Describe alternatives you've considered Searched the docs, but didn't find answer. I do see the System Model example, but believe the UserGuide should have this information.