Understanding Load Profiles
Load profiles in Eturnity Expert represent electricity consumption patterns that are crucial for accurate PV system simulation and self-consumption calculations. These profiles show how much electricity a building consumes, enabling you to design optimally sized PV systems and provide precise feasibility assessments to your customers.
Why load profiles matter:
Accurate system sizing: Match PV system capacity to actual consumption patterns
Precise self-consumption simulation: Calculate realistic energy savings and payback periods
Better customer consultation: Show customers exactly how their system will perform
Improved project feasibility: Make data-driven decisions about system viability
Types of Load Profiles
Eturnity Expert provides three main categories of load profiles, each designed for different building types and use cases:
Residential Profiles
Standard consumption patterns for residential buildings, including:
Single-family houses with different heating systems (heat pump, electric, oil/gas)
Profiles for different heating, hot water and cooling systems
Commercial & Industrial Profiles
Specialized profiles for business and industrial applications, organized by sector, for example:
Hospitality
Trade
Manufacturing
Health & Social Work
Education
Public Administration
The table shows the sector in the NACE Section column and the code of the economic activity in the NACE Division column.
License Note: Commercial & Industrial load profiles require the commercial load profiles add-on; you can also use them during a trial. If the Commercial & Industrial tab is grayed out for you, please contact support@eturnity.com or our support team via chat to learn about upgrade options.
Individual Profiles
Custom profiles of this project. They are created when you import real consumption data as a CSV file, when you edit and save a standard profile or — in France — via Linky. Individual profiles can be selected in all variants of this project, but not in other projects; they cannot be deleted. To import real consumption data:
Click Create new profile and, in the import area, download the CSV template via Download sample file
Fill in the template with your customer's real consumption data. Column A: seconds in 15-minute intervals throughout the year. Column B: per row, the consumption (kWh or Wh) or the average power (kW or W) — you choose the unit during the import under 2nd column: units of measurement
Make sure the file has exactly two columns and covers a full year: the first data row on January 1, the last on December 31. Instead of 15-minute values, you can also use hourly values
Select the file and click Upload file. Eturnity checks the file and shows the yearly consumption and the monthly values under Imported data
If the yearly consumption from the file should apply, switch on Substitute the currently used yearly consumption value with the value from the imported CSV file — otherwise Eturnity only takes the pattern over the year from the file. Select the building details and click Save and select the profile: the profile “CSV upload” appears under Individual Profiles and is active immediately
Important: Eturnity reads a UTF-8 encoded CSV file with exactly two columns, separated by semicolon, comma or tab. If the file has a header row, leave File has column header checked, otherwise uncheck it — if the setting does not match the file, Eturnity rejects it. The template shows the expected format. As it contains power values in watts, choose W as the unit of measurement if you enter values in this form — the default is kWh.
Selecting a Load Profile
To select an appropriate load profile for your project:
Open the Consumption profile page in the variant (Design group; in the older navigation under Photovoltaics > Electricity usage)
Use the Residential, Commercial & Industrial and Individual Profiles tabs to switch between profile types
Browse the available profiles or use the search functionality to find specific profiles
Click on a profile to select it — the system will immediately show a visualization of the monthly consumption pattern. Confirm the selection with Save in the bar at the bottom (or Ctrl+S or Cmd+S)
Review the profile details including annual consumption, building type, and heating system
Profile selection tips:
Match the building type (single-family, office, industrial)
Consider the heating system (heat pump, electric, oil/gas)
Account for occupancy patterns (residential vs. commercial hours)
Use search functionality to quickly find relevant profiles
Editing Load Profiles
You can customize the selected profile to better match your customer's specific consumption patterns, provided your license includes editing consumption profiles or a trial is running. In addition, the yearly consumption excluding e-mobility must be above 0 kWh. If you edit a standard profile, Eturnity creates a new individual profile when you save; the standard profile remains unchanged.
After selecting a profile, click Edit profile. If the selection has not been saved yet, Eturnity asks first: with Yes, save & leave you edit the newly selected profile, with No, just leave the last saved one
Under Splitting mode, choose how the consumption is split. With On a monthly basis, you adjust the consumption for each month of the year. With Split by time of day, you distribute each month's consumption across five times of day (00–06, 06–10, 10–14, 14–18 and 18–24 h); the values apply to all days of the month
Under Edit mode, choose whether you enter Absolute Values in kWh or shares as a Percentage. Percentage is only available if the consumption is not split on a monthly basis
Enter the values in the fields below the bars. Eturnity applies a value as soon as you leave the field (Tab, Enter or a click elsewhere) and redraws the chart
Click Save consumption profile. An individual profile is overwritten in the process — also in all other variants of the project that use it
Regional Editing Options
Depending on your company's country, additional splitting options are available:
🇮🇹 Italy: Splitting mode additionally offers Split by Fasce (IT), which lets you adjust consumption according to the Italian tariff zones (F1, F2, F3). For buildings in Italy, the chart shows standard profiles split this way from the start.
🇪🇸 Spain: Splitting mode additionally offers Split by P1-P3, which lets you adjust consumption according to the Spanish tariff periods. For buildings in Spain, the chart shows standard profiles split this way from the start.
🇫🇷 France: For buildings in France, the chart shows standard profiles split by time of day from the outset; however, you can choose Split by time of day in any country.
E-Mobility Load Addition
You can extend your selected load profile with electric vehicle charging by adding E-Mobility consumption:
Select your base load profile (residential, commercial, or individual)
Click Add EV Chargepoint to extend the profile (if a charging setup already exists, the button is called Edit EV)
Under Specific energy consumption, choose the vehicle's consumption in kWh per 100 km: Small car, Medium car (default), Large car or Van
Under Daily driving distance, enter the average number of kilometers driven per day
Under Charging power, choose the charging power of the charging station, from Slow Charger / Home Plug (3.3 kW) to Fast DC (50 kW); the default is Home Wallbox (11 kW)
In the Charging schedule, set the Charging start time for each weekday (full hour or quick selection Morning, Noon, Evening) and the Daily distance in km. Eturnity calculates how long the vehicle charges from the daily distance, the specific energy consumption and the charging power (95% of the rated power); on days with 0 km, there is no charging
Click Save. Note: the default charging setup that Add EV Chargepoint creates is saved immediately; Back only discards later changes. To remove e-mobility completely, use Delete > Confirm
License Note: The E-Mobility feature is available with the E-Mobility Add-on or during a trial. If this feature is not included in your license and you are interested, please contact support@eturnity.com or our support team via chat.
Annual Consumption Adjustment
You can adjust the annual consumption value to match your customer's specific needs:
On the Consumption profile page (older navigation: Electricity usage), you will find the Yearly consumption field to the right of the chart
Enter the customer's actual annual consumption in kWh. The value includes the consumption of all EV charging setups and must not be lower than that; if a charging setup is added later, Eturnity increases the value by its consumption
The system will automatically scale the selected profile to match this consumption
Review the updated monthly distribution in the visualization and click Save in the bar at the bottom (or Ctrl+S or Cmd+S)
Important: This scaling maintains the relative consumption patterns while adjusting the absolute values to match your customer's actual usage.
Support
If you have questions about load profiles or need assistance with any of the features described in this guide, please contact our support team at support@eturnity.com or via chat in the Help Center in Eturnity Expert.