When you start SAM for the first time, you must provide an email address to receive a registration key and activate your copy of SAM. Your registration key is associated with the email address you provide when you register your copy of SAM. The email address must be valid and for an account that you can access to ensure you receive the registration key.

•NREL provides SAM registration keys for free.

•You receive your registration key by email. Be sure to keep the email or a copy of the key so you can register new versions, or in case you need to re-register SAM.

•The registration key works with both the Windows and OS X versions of SAM.

•You can use your registration key to register SAM on more than one computer.

Note. If your computer is connected to the internet and you have trouble registering or verifying your key, please see Web Access and Proxies for information that you might need to troubleshoot the issue.

To register your copy of SAM:

1.Install SAM and start the software.

SAM displays the registration window. If it does not, you can display it by clicking Registration in the bottom left corner of the Welcome page.

2.In the registration window, type your email address and click Register.

Within a few minutes, you should receive a registration key by email from sam.support@nrel.gov.

3.Cut and paste the key from the email into the Registration window.

4.Click Confirm.

SAM displays a message about registration.

5.Click OK to agree to share information about your use of SAM and register SAM, or click Cancel to stop the registration process.

 

Your personal data and SAM

When you register SAM, you provide NREL with your email address, which SAM sends via secure connection (HTTPS), and which NREL stores in a secure database on NREL servers.

After registering SAM, each time you start SAM, it verifies your registration key, and sends the following data to the registration database, where it is stored permanently, and can be accessed by NREL staff:

•Your computer's IP address, which provides approximate location information about your computer

•The name of the SAM application and its version number.

•The date and time you registered each version of SAM.

•The date and time you last started each version of SAM.

•The number of times you started each version SAM.

NREL uses this data to determine how many people are using different versions of SAM, and approximately where people are using the software. This information helps the laboratory demonstrate SAM's value to the U.S. Department of Energy and other sponsors who fund its development,and makes it possible for you to use it for free.

Using SAM while off line

When you start SAM while your computer is not connected to the internet, SAM cannot verify your registration key, so it displays the registration window with an option to "skip for now." Use this option to run SAM while your computer is off line. You can run SAM off line, but you will not be able to download weather data, electricity rate data, or other data from online databases. SAM allows you to run your copy of SAM up to 15 times without verifying the registration key. The next time you start SAM while connected to the internet, after it successfully connects to the registration database, it restores the number of times you can skip registration to 15.

To run SAM while your computer is offline:

1.Start SAM.

2.In the registration window, click Close.

3.Read the verification message, and click Skip for now.

Tip. If you plan to work offline for an extended period of time during a trip or for another reason, keep SAM open on your computer to avoid using up the number of starts allowed without verifying your registration key. If you use a hibernate or sleep mode to shut down you computer, you can keep SAM open over multiple work sessions.

Requesting a Registration Key

If you lose your registration key, you can have it resent to your email address.

To request a registration key:

1.Start SAM. If the registration window does not appear, click Registration in the bottom left corner of the Welcome page.

2.Type the email address you first used to register SAM.

3.Click Register without typing a key.

4.Click Resend key.

Within a few minutes, you should receive a registration key by email from sam.support@nrel.gov.

SAM registration and the SAM Website

The SAM registration system is separate from the SAM website registration system. You do not need to register on the SAM website to download the current versions of SAM.

You do need to register on the SAM website to post questions and comments on the SAM support forum, or to download older versions of the software.