SWM File format help

Hi,

I'm trying to get a pre-processed weather file in SWM format to read into SAM. Is there an example SWM formatted file anywhere?

Copying these lines from the manual into a .csv or .swm doesn't work;

723860,"Clark/El Dorado",NV,-8.0,35.796245,-114.974334,548.64,3600.,2010,0:30:00
5.15,-4.7,-999.,46.4225,0.65,295.0,941.97,0.0,0.016517,0.0,0.23,-999.
3.85,-4.1,-999.,54.1635,0.35,245.0,944.99,0.0,0.008,0.0,0.23,-999.
2.95,-3.85,-999.,58.752,0.3,225.0,945.785,0.0,0.08555,0.0,0.23,-999.

What am I missing? If I have a similar file with 8760 lines it still gives the 'Invalid Weather file, check data in line 1' error.

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

You can see an example of an SMW weather file (NW EL Deorado Hourly.smw) in your SAM installation's weather file folder, which by default in Windows is:

C:\SAM\2012.5.11\exelib\climate_files

In SAM 2012.5.11, only the Flat Plate PV and Physical Trough models can read SMW files.

Based on my tests, it seems that to run with the Physical Trough model, each row in the SMW file must end in a comma. The commas do not appear to be required for the Flat Plate PV model.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thanks much for the quick response. It seems that the PVWatts Simplified Model works with (or at least will read) SWM files in the 2012.9.27 BETA version. Is this planned functionality or does is it just appearing to work?

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

That is by design. We are gradually porting the code for all of SAM's performance models to a new simulation platform. Among many other things, the new platform allows for reading weather data in the SMW format. In the Beta and Fall 2012 versions, the PVWatts model runs on the new platform, and so can read the SMW files.

Best regards,
Paul.