Understanding the move to TSRF in DirectDesign
We’ve made a big improvement to how solar production is represented in DirectDesign — and you may have noticed that the shade value and shade override button are no longer visible. Instead, we now display TSRF (Total Solar Resource Fraction). 
Why were Shade Values removed from the info box?
The shade values being displayed were calculated as an average shade value across the entire array. While this provided a quick snapshot, it did not always reflect how shade impacted individual panels. Shade percentages focused on how much sunlight is blocked for each array, while TSRF focuses on how much sunlight each panel could receive.
Take the array below, for example. The shading might come out to 10%, but that is an average. In reality, some panels closer to the tree may be more heavily shaded than those farther from the tree. That 10% doesn’t give you a clear understanding of what’s really happening. It can create confusion and doesn’t reflect how solar panels actually perform across different conditions on the roof.
How do I Know What's Shaded?
Our system calculates shade impacts in the background, factoring in things like roof layout and tree placement to determine how shade affects each individual panel.
With tree management in DirectDesign, you can add or adjust trees directly within the design, and our system will automatically account for those changes when calculating the updated production. Even though you won't see a specific shade number to update, the impact of the tree placement is fully reflected in the system's performance estimates, giving you more accurate results without the need for manual shade inputs.
This is also reflected in the TSRF value, which focuses on how much sunlight each panel is actually able to use (as opposed to shade percentage, which showed how much is blocked). Think of TSRF as a productivity score for solar panels — the closer the number is to 100%, the more solar energy that panel can capture based on its angle, direction, and shading.
To learn more about Tree Management in DirectDesign, click HERE.