A full CPF walkthrough

These following sequence of thumbnails detail the solar proposal wizard which is at the core of the Clean Power Finance service suite. I was responsible for the bulk of the business logic, adding DHTML controls, and systems upgrading and maintenance.

The site was originally a crude heap of PHP; I overlaid the Zend_DB and Zend_MVC onto it and restructured the business logic in a series of OOP components. This reduced redundant SQL and increased maintainability.

I contributed to the design principally by workinging on the analysis screen as an example, and assisting a design intern in carrying the standards set therein throughout the rest of the site, limited by what could b accomplished with CSS changes only.

The wizard starts with some basic information about your location. This is vital later on as the energy efficiency of the panel is based on the location of the site both for panel to sun calculations and for weather simulation.	Enlarge
More detail is required about the installation. Roof size will limit possible number of panels installed, and shading from surrounding trees and structures block sunlight, reducing gain from panels. Up to three areas can be computed in a single estimate.	Enlarge
Then, enter information about your current energy usage. This becomes useful to determine how much energy the panels need to produce, and how much you'll save by generating your own electricity.	Enlarge
The equipment screen allows you to select hardware from your profile's list of equipment in the installers' inventory, and choose incentives as they apply to the job.  The onus is on the installer to know which incentives the customer qualifies for, though the list is narrowed somewhat by installation type, utility choice, and location.	Enlarge
This screen allows you to select the number of panels and inverters required for the installation. The top section suggests job sizes based on use and savings calculations, based on simulations of the installation at various sizes.	> Enlarge
The following screens are web versions of the end product proposal. Its a long page so I've tiled it in several images. The first tile shows the up-front contract cost broken down into equipment, labor, etc. It also allows the installer to "Take on" an incentive to lower the client's up-front.	> Enlarge
These charts show yearly and monthly costs and savings by contrasting your existing expenses against your post-installation expenses.	> Enlarge
The most convincing screen of all is the cash flow: this is a numeric breakdown of the yearly projection with detailed breakdown for equipment, incentives, energy savings, etc.	> Enlarge
When you are done adjusting the proposal, the last page of the proposal gives you links to the PDF version of the proposal to give to your clients. This is transformed from the HTML on the previously page so is largely identical to the previous screens.	> Enlarge
You can also use proposal data to fill out government forms. The forms wizard is keyed to the government and utility forms required for your region. You are often given a choice between more than one formset for a particular job, as shown here.	> Enlarge
Additional information is required for the government forms. The forms required are shown as thumbnails at the top of the screen.	> Enlarge
When you have entered all the requisite information you are given a PDF to print out. This PDF is a "gang" of all the forms you selected, plus some "boilerplate" forms for signatures.	> Enlarge