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B3 Benchmarking Newsletter |
In this newsletter:
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Site IDs
B3 has added support for tracking multiple custom and standard IDs related to each site. All IDs, including the B3 assigned Site ID and existing B3 Alt ID, can now be found in the Site Editor on a new tab called Identifiers located under the Other menu. Here you can add up to 3 custom IDs as well as 3 Standard IDs that are selected from the dropdown. Custom IDs are unique to your portfolio or program, and you set both the name and value. Standard IDs are typically associated with regional or national programs and campaigns. Select the ID name from the dropdown and enter the value. These IDs are included in the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® integration, so will transfer to streamline tracking and ordinance compliance submittals. A new Export to Excel template called Site Identifiers has been added to create a list of these for each site.
Submeters
Submeters within B3 can now be connected to other submeters, allowing a daisy chain of connections. Remember that submeters may have differing source types or unit measurements than their master meter. For example, say your campus has a heating plant that provides steam produced from a natural gas boiler. The natural gas meter from the utility would be entered as the master meter. There may be a meter at the heating plant that tracks how much total steam is produced, which would be entered as a submeter tied back to the utility natural gas meter. The individual buildings would then have steam submeters tied back to the heating plant steam submeter. Sneak peak for the upcoming release: we are enhancing the diagram views to help ease the web of buildings and meters that may occur with campuses.
Reminder that virtual submeters can be created, and usage from a master meter can be automatically allocated by entering a percent. This may be helpful in campus situations where a meter is shared across buildings, as creating an allocated meter with estimated usage allows the separation of sites. This is also useful for with renewable energy that is generated at one site, but the organization wants to allocate some of the renewable usage to another site in order to meet carbon goals.
To help alert if submeters are overallocated to the master meter, B3 will now post a warning within the Messages dashboard widget, as well as on the Benchmark and Baseline metrics. Use the Export to Excel template called Master Meter/Submeters Usage to see monthly usage of the master meter and each submeter, which helps identify which meter(s) may be causing the issue.
Excel Exports
Export to Excel templates have been enhanced and expanded to provide easy access to more metrics and site/building details. The list of templates can be accessed from the Tools menu in the upper right corner. If you’re not seeing a template that meets your needs, a custom export can be created and saved for future use.
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Dashboard Widgets
If you haven’t looked lately, we’ve added additional dashboard widgets and updated existing ones. The gear icon in the upper right corner allows you to configure your specific user dashboard to highlight what is important to you. Widgets can be resized, rearranged, and some have additional filtering options.
Other Recent Updates
- Support for drag/drop in navigation tree
- Annual summary visualizations table when viewing specific meters
- Support for CO2e factors by utility company
- Mark a site as not containing any energy meters, to alleviate warnings