Environmental Benefits widget

What this widget is for

The Environmental Benefits widget translates your solar production into three plain-English numbers anyone can understand:

• CO₂ reduced — kilograms of CO₂ that would have been emitted if this energy had come from grid generation instead.
• Water saved — litres of water that conventional generation would have used.
• Electric-car distance — kilometres an electric vehicle could have driven on the same energy.

It is the right widget for telling the story of what your solar has achieved — for a reception screen, a tenant report, a school dashboard, a sustainability page. For the raw kWh figures use the Energy Production & Consumption chart.

Companion guides

• Dashboard overview — how to add, move, resize, and remove widgets.
• Energy Production & Consumption chart — the raw kWh totals behind these benefits.
• Load Analysis chart — how much of the load was actually covered by solar (the "self-consumption" story).

Where to find it

Open the Dashboard, click the pencil icon to enter edit mode, then click Add New Widget. Search the picker for Environmental Benefits and click Add Widget.

The widget at a glance

The widget shows a small illustration with three numbers overlaid:

• A CO₂ icon with the kilograms of CO₂ avoided.
• A water-drop icon with the litres of water saved.
• A car icon with the kilometres an electric vehicle could have driven.

All three are computed from a single number: the PV energy produced over the chosen period. The widget multiplies that by standard conversion factors used in environmental impact estimates.

Choosing the period

Open the gear icon. Four switches let you pick which period the figures represent:

• Daily — today so far.
• Monthly — this month so far.
• Yearly — this year so far.
• Total — lifetime total since the system was commissioned.

Tick the one you want; only the most recently ticked switch is used. The widget redraws with the new totals when you close settings.

How the numbers are calculated

Each metric is a per-kWh multiplier applied to the PV total for the chosen period:

• CO₂ reduced — about 0.9 kg per kWh of solar energy.
• Water saved — about 1.35 L per kWh.
• Electric-car distance — about 8.2 km per kWh (assuming an efficient EV).

The numbers are estimates — they use widely-cited factors for an average grid mix. They aren't a substitute for a formal sustainability audit, but they're a fair shorthand for showing impact.

Who can do what

• Any signed-in user can add the widget, switch periods, and read the numbers. The widget is read-only — it never sends a command back to a device.

Common issues

• All three numbers show zero. Either the chosen period has no PV production yet (early in the day, no sun), or the PV total isn't being reported. Confirm by adding the PV Power live status icon — if that shows power, the data is fine and the period total is genuinely small.
• The numbers feel large or small for the production I know about. The conversion factors assume an average grid mix; in regions with a cleaner or dirtier grid the real CO₂ figure differs. The widget's value is the story, not a certified figure.

Tips and gotchas

• Use it on a public-facing View. This widget is unusually good at communicating with non-technical viewers. Drop it on a "Reception" or "Public" View along with a clean Load Analysis donut.
• Pair with the Yearly Energy Production chart. This widget gives the impact summary; the chart shows when it was earned. Together they answer what and when.
• The numbers grow throughout the day. If you've ticked Daily, the numbers update as the day progresses — you'll see them climb hour by hour while the sun's up.