User guide

How to use Solviren

A step-by-step guide to loading your energy bills and getting the most out of every dashboard section.

You need at least 12 months of bills

Solviren uses your bill history to calculate averages and run simulations. One full year is the minimum for reliable results. Two or more years unlock year-over-year comparisons and more accurate solar and heat pump modelling.

Getting started

1

Create an account

Register with your email and a password, or sign in with Google. Your bill data is stored securely and linked to your account — no one else can see it.

2

Gather your bills

For each monthly bill, note down four values:

  • Electricity consumptionin kWh (kilowatt-hours)
  • Electricity cost — total amount paid in €
  • Gas consumptionin Smc (standard cubic metres)
  • Gas cost — total amount paid in €

If your household only uses electricity or only gas, leave the other fields empty — all four values are optional per row.

Collect at least 12 consecutive months for reliable averages and simulations.
3

Load your data

Open the Bills Manager section in the dashboard. You have two options:

Option A — Manual entry

Use the form at the top of the Bills Manager. Select a year and month, fill in the values you have, and click Save. Repeat for each billing period. Good for a handful of bills — not ideal for a year's worth of data all at once.

Manual entry — example row
Year
2024
Month
March
Elec kWh
260
Elec €
69.80
Gas Smc
30
Gas €
48.90

Option B — CSV import (recommended for bulk data)

Create a spreadsheet with these exact column names in the first row, then export it as a .csv file and upload it via the Import CSV button.

yearmonthelec_kwhelec_cost_eurgas_smcgas_cost_eur

month can be a number (1–12) or an Italian abbreviation: Gen, Feb, Mar, Apr, Mag, Giu, Lug, Ago, Set, Ott, Nov, Dic. All four value columns are optional — leave a cell empty if you don't have that figure.

Example:

yearmonthelec_kwhelec_cost_eurgas_smcgas_cost_eur
20241 (Jan)32085.404268.20
20242 (Feb)29077.103861.50
20243 (Mar)26069.803048.90
20244 (Apr)24063.50

Tip: use a chatbot to extract bill data

If your bills are in PDF or image format, open any AI chatbot (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) and either: (a) open the bill, press Ctrl+A to select all the text, copy it, and paste it into the chatbot together with the prompt below; or (b) upload the bill file directly to the chatbot and paste the prompt. The chatbot will return a single CSV row ready to add to your file.

I'll give you a utility bill (photo or text). Please extract the following fields and output one CSV row with these exact columns:

year,month,elec_kwh,elec_cost_eur,gas_smc,gas_cost_eur

Rules:
- month: use the numeric month (1–12)
- Leave a field empty (not zero) if the bill doesn't include that utility
- Use a period as the decimal separator
- Output only the CSV row, no explanation

Here is the bill:
[paste bill text or attach photo]
4

Explore the dashboard

Once your bills are loaded, all dashboard sections update automatically. Read the section guides below to understand what each panel shows and what inputs it needs.

Dashboard sections

Bills Manager

Bills Manager

The central hub for all your bill data. Here you can add, edit, and delete bills — individually or in bulk via CSV. All other sections use this data as their source.

What it needs:

  • One row per billing month with year, month, and at least one numeric value
  • Duplicate entries (same year + month) are automatically merged
YearMonthkWhElec costSmcGas cost
2024Jan32085.404268.20
2024Feb29077.103861.50
2024Mar26069.80
Aim for 12 or more consecutive months per utility for reliable averages and trends.
Solar & Heat Pump Simulation

Solar & Heat Pump Simulation

Simulates how solar panels and/or a heat pump would change your energy footprint. The model uses your actual monthly consumption as a baseline and runs production or demand calculations for your specific location and setup.

What it needs:

  • Your bills — used to estimate your baseline consumption
  • Location — pick your address on the map (latitude/longitude)
  • Solar panel specs — peak power (kWp), tilt angle, azimuth (180° = south), system efficiency
  • Heat pump specs — number of occupants, terminal type (underfloor / radiators), nominal COP, current boiler efficiency

You can toggle solar and heat pump independently. Save a configuration as a scenario to compare different setups side by side in the ROI section.

Solar scenario — example inputs
Power
4.0
kWp
Tilt
30
°
Azimuth
180
° (south)
Efficiency
0.80
Needs at least 6 months of the relevant utility data to produce meaningful simulation results.
Investment & ROI Analysis

Investment & ROI Analysis

Calculates the payback period for a solar, heat pump, or combined investment using real quotes from suppliers. The analysis shows a best-case and worst-case timeline and accounts for government incentives.

What it needs:

  • A saved Solar or Heat Pump scenario (created in the simulation section above)
  • A supplier quote: ask your installer for the total installation cost and their estimated annual energy savings
  • Optional: incentive amount (e.g. local government rebates or tax credits) and the number of years over which it is paid
Safety margin: a percentage you can set (default 15 %) that reduces the assumed annual savings to account for real-world variation. Best-case uses the full savings; worst-case applies the margin. If the investment doesn't pay back within 20 years, the result shows '— '.
Run the simulations first to get realistic savings estimates before filling in the ROI form.