How to enter residential cost without financing for payback analysis?

New (attempting)user.

So far, SAM is a big disappointment to me. It holds such promise yet is VERY difficult for me to comprehend, much less use. How about some common sense, plain language,straightforward methods to do some real, PRODUCTIVE analysis. I feel as if I'm being forced to jump through hoops and don't understand the directions much less the meaning or reasons. FWIW, I became an engineer many years ago because of my interest in solar energy. I believe I have a solid grounding in the subject. I have written software using FORTRAN,BASIC and now EXCEL that does much of what SAM tries to do, I believe in some cases better and easier. SAM's graphics are better. For that and other reasons I'd like to use it, but at this point I'm not sure it's worth the time and frustration.

J.P.M.

Hi J.P.M.,

SAM does require some time and effort to learn. Is there something specific that you are trying to do that I can help you with?

Best regards,
Paul.