To define an Opportunity, pick a facility in the Facility Tree, then click Add Opportunity in the Tasks Area. You will be given a form with a number of sub-tabs, to enter the details.
If you are planning to fully define the opportunity, print out all relevant mechanical system schematics and details, and have any outside documents and analysis notes ready.
Engineering analysis is done outside of ManagingEnergy by an experienced professional. The exact nature of the analysis will depend on the type of building, the systems present, the historical energy use patterns, and many other variables that must be left to the judgment of the analyst. The results of the analyst's work are entered here.
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Although building energy analysis is beyond the scope of this manual, it is useful to have an overview of the suggested analysis process. This approach has been found effective at giving thorough and reliable results.
Suggested Opportunity Analysis and Entry Process
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1. | Work on a building by building basis, completing the analysis of one building before moving on to another. |
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2. | When starting a new facility, print out the Baseline Model reports for all facility meters. |
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3. | Within each building, analyse one mechanical plant at a time. Print out the applicable reports, schematics, and floor plans, if available. |
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4. | Generate ideas quickly by reviewing the list of standard opportunities, through the Existing or Standard Measures button on the Opportunities and Measures form. This list can be sorted by plant type by right-clicking on the # column. |
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5. | Analyze the ideas that seem most promising. Where technical issues are outstanding, contact the site surveyor, building staff, and equipment vendors to ensure that the opportunity is physically possible. |
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6. | Eliminate prospective opportunities that are not technically viable or that do not meet the facility owner's financial criteria. |
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7. | Enter the opportunity information using the Facility Opportunities form, through the Add Opportunity button under the Opportunities tab. Each opportunity in a building must be assigned a unique code. Organize opportunities by picking suitable code names. |
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8. | When entering the meter impacts (expected savings) for each opportunity, confirm that the accumulated impacts of all opportunities are reasonable. Compare accumulated impacts against general targets for an indication of how reasonable the savings calculations are. This step is important to avoid overly optimistic projections or double counting of the same energy savings within more than one opportunity. In the end, all opportunities must be additive (i.e., each one must assume that the others have been implemented) to provide reliable results. This conservative approach is intended to maximize the likelihood that the facility owner will see all of the expected savings from an investment plan. |
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9. | Move on to the next plant or facility. |
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An Opportunity appears in the Facility Tree as an open toolbox icon.
Lighting Opportunities
Lighting Opportunities can be treated exactly like other opportunities, where the analysis is done outside and the outputs are entered. But you also have the option to develop lighting projects at a high level of detail, completely within ManagingEnergy, to take advantage of the extensive lighting features. If you have gone through the effort to take a lighting inventory, use ManagingEnergy to fully describe the components and pricing of the opportunity, in detail and room-by-room.
ManagingEnergy does not require that you use detailed lighting functionality to define and track lighting projects. If you are in a hurry and don't want to spend time on a detailed lighting inventory, you can define lighting projects the same as any other project... on a more general level with a degree of uncertainty. If you are using an outside lighting service or contractor, they may find ManagingEnergy to be a useful tool. In that case you can set them up as a user (security-restricted to lighting functionality).
Another option is to have a lighting contractor perform an inventory, and then check their pricing yourself by entering the survey details into ManagingEnergy.
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Approved Opportunities
Approved Opportunities are those that have been reviewed, budgeted, and approved for implementation. They have a scheduled completion date but are not yet complete, so implementation is in progress. An Opportunity becomes an Approved Opportunity when the Approved box is checked and a future Scheduled Completion Date is set.
Approved Opportunities appear in the Facility Tree as open toolbox icons with green check marks.
Measures
Measures, or Energy Conservation Measures are Opportunities that have been implemented and are now expected to save energy. An Approved Opportunity becomes a Measure when the Completed box is checked and an Actual Completion Date is set.
Measures appear in the Facility Tree as closed toolbox icons.
Measures are created in ManagingEnergy by marking an opportunity as complete and allocating meter impact quantities to monthly savings values.
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Related Topics
Transfer Lighting Opportunity
Retrofit Recommendations
Existing System
Energy Savings
Scenario Options
Quotes
S4_Opps
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