The energy audit program provides context based help buttons in the program that look like Green Circles with a Question Mark in them. You can click these to get help on nearly any field in the program.
This wiki is designed to provide both the beginner and professional user the knowledge and guidance necessary to complete an Energy Assessment using our tool. We invite you to submit your recommendations and examples to help build this wiki into a complete reference library.
Data Locking: Certain data fields get locked when you print a final draft of the report. DO NOT PRINT A FINAL REPORT until you are 100% sure the data in the Building Description page is correct. You will not be able to edit most of this data once you print a report. This ensures project consistency in the database. Please use the online “DRAFT REPORT” function until you know your data is correct.
Picture Uploading: Upload as many pictures as you want into the program, but please be aware that Browsing and uploading your photos by double-clicking does not save the photo as a change to the page and won't show up until you have SAVED THE PAGE. Click the “SAVE” button on the page to do this. You may also need to refresh the page you're on in order to see the photo you just uploaded.
Compatibility: While we make every effort to ensure our program works on all browsers, we have had the fewest instances of glitches in the Chrome browser. If you have more than one browser available, you may enjoy a better user experience in Chrome.
Credit Card Security: We do NOT save your credit card information unless you opt-in for automatic renewal of your account. We use a one-time processing service that we pay a fee to in effort to prevent any credit card fraud to your account.
Contact Information Privacy: We do NOT sell or give out your contact information to 3 parties. We may and will use it to contact you about your account when necessary. You will not receive SPAM from us. We do offer services to which you can opt-in or request we locate a service provider to get in touch with you. In this case, only those providers will be given your information.
Physical Address This is the listed address of the property. It should be the same one used by the post office and other official entities. Please note that our software will lock this license to the particular address that you enter. You will only have a few days to make any corrections to this address before our system prevents any changes from being made to the address, city, state, or ZIP code that you enter.
City This is the actual legal city and not an unofficial suburb name of the area. For instance, an area may be referred to by residents as 'Bosley Heights' but it may actually be in a city like Chicago or Denver.
State The state in which the property exists.
Zipcode This is the postal zipcode for the property. If you don't know the zipcode and this is not populating automatically, then you can try http://www.usnaviguide.com/zip.htm . This free website allows you to enter an address and see the outline of the zipcode where it is located.
Latitude This should automatically populate. However, there are options to determining latitude and longitude. One option is to go to “” http://geocoder.ca/ “” or “” http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php “”. The other option is to look up the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of a spot on the map using Google Maps, following the steps below:
1.Right-click on the desired spot on the map to bring up a menu with options. 2.In the menu, select What’s here?. 3.Click the green arrow to get the latitude and longitude coordinates, or look in the search box - the numbers should populate there.“
Longitude See Latitude.
Property-Type “This is a pulldown menu listing different options such as: office, hotel/motel, apartment, education, healthcare, etc. please select the primary classification for your particular facility. An additional menu, if applicable, will present itself to the right of this first pulldown menu. It will present other options to you. For instance, in the case of an office building, there are different sub classifications such as; owner occupied, leased with 1-5 tenants, or leased with greater than 5 tenants. In some cases you will see a third menu created to the right of the second menu. This is primarily for use when an accurate description of your facility is not available and you choose ”“other”” as a category for your building. You can then type in the description of your building in the third menu field.“
Project-Name There is no right or wrong answer for this field. Many facilities and buildings are given a name or a nickname instead of just using the address as the primary description. An example would be instead of referring to your location as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, you would refer to as “The White House”. If there is a name for your facility enter that name here.
Building-ID If you are building has a unique identification number that is used for any internal purposes, for instance a unique Tax ID, business cost center identification, or purchase order number, you can enter that number here. It is an optional field and is not used for any purpose other than for your internal reference.
Project-Audit-Date This will be the date of your audit. For instance, you can choose the date you start auditing, or the date you complete auditing. The choice depends on how you intend to record your auditing dates.
Year-Built This should be the date the property opened for business, or was 'completed' if the start of business came after the completed construction of the building. This date should not be the date permits were issued or the date the property 'broke ground'.
Annual-HDD “Heating and Cooling Degree Days are used to determine the impact that the climate has on your energy consumption. It's easy to see why building located in Arizona would require more air-conditioning than a building located in Wisconsin. Conversely it's easy to see why the building in Wisconsin would require more heating in the building in Arizona. This particular field is for the purpose of recording the number of Degree Days that affect your facility. The National Climactic Data Center which is part of the US Department of Commerce, along with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracks atmospheric conditions and degree day information and has produced a chart that is used to determine the Degree Days that affect different metropolitan areas. If this information does not automatically populate you may click the link to be taken to this chart. On the chart you will see listed in the first column, the metropolitan areas in alphabetical order by state. Take the metropolitan area that best represents your location. On that same line in the last column labeled ”“ANN””, will be the total number of degree days that you will want to put into this field. If the automatic link is not working, you can type this into your browser, ““http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/nrmhdd.html”” . Here are two examples: 1- If your building is located somewhere near Buffalo, New York, you would look in the annual column and find the number 6693. This is the number of heating degree days in the Buffalo, New York area. 2- If your building happens to be near Miami, Florida, you would look in the annual column and find the number 155. The colder the climate, the higher the number of Heating Degree Days associated with that area.“
Annual-CDD “Heating and Cooling Degree Days are used to determine the impact that the climate has on your energy consumption. It's easy to see why building located in Arizona would require more air-conditioning than a building located in Wisconsin. Conversely it's easy to see why the building in Wisconsin would require more heating in the building in Arizona. This particular field is for the purpose of recording the number of Degree Days that affect your facility. The National Climactic Data Center which is part of the US Department of Commerce, along with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracks atmospheric conditions and degree day information and has produced a chart that is used to determine the Degree Days that affect different metropolitan areas. If this information does not automatically populate you may click the link to be taken to this chart. On the chart you will see listed in the first column, the metropolitan areas in alphabetical order by state. Take the metropolitan area that best represents your location. On that same line in the last column labeled ”“ANN””, will be the total number of degree days that you will want to put into this field. If the automatic link is not working, you can type this into your browser, ““http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/nrmcdd.html”” . Here are two examples: 1- If your building is located somewhere near Buffalo, New York, you would look in the annual column and find the number 548. This is the number of Cooling Degree Days in the Buffalo, New York area. 2- If your building happens to be near Miami, Florida, you would look in the annual column and find the number 4383. The hotter the climate, the higher the number of Cooling Degree Days associated with that area.“
Gross-Floor-Area This will be the total square footage of the building including all space that is un-leaseable, mechanical, utility, or other type spaces. For instance, if a one story building is 100 feet long and 100 feet wide, it is 10,000 GROSS square feet. Because of electric rooms, mechanical rooms, plumbing chases, etc. the Usable or Rentable square feet might only be 9,000 square feet.
Total-Conditioned-Area This is the total area that is served by Heating or Air Conditioning only. A ventilated space that is neither heated nor cooled is not considered a “Conditioned” space. For instance, you may have a 9,000 square foot facility, but 1,000 square feet of it may be storage that is only ventilated. In this case, the Total Conditioned Area would be 8,000 square feet.
Heated-Area Some buildings have certain areas that are not heated, yet are included in the overall square footage. Such areas might be elevator lobbies, bathrooms, mechanical rooms, foyers, etc. Areas like these would be subtracted from the gross square footage when considering heated area. There are some areas that may not directly heated, but may be indirectly heated. For instance in floors that have cubicles for open offices, it is not uncommon for the interior spaces to not be directly heated. However, these spaces are typically indirectly heated by being open to adjacent areas that provide general heat for the entire space. In this case it is recommended that you include these interior areas that are indirectly heated in your “heated area” figure.
Cooled-Area Some buildings have certain areas that are not cooled, yet are included in the overall square footage. Such areas might be mechanical rooms, atrium's, storage rooms, etc. Areas like these would be subtracted from the gross square footage when considering cooled area. There are some areas that may not directly cooled, but may be indirectly cooled. For instance, it is not uncommon for bathrooms to not be directly cooled as a zone of their own-they are frequently indirectly cooled by having an exhaust fan draw conditioned air from an adjacent area into the bathroom. In this case it is recommended that you include interior areas such as this that are indirectly cooled in your “cooled area” figure.
Number-of-Conditioned-Floors-Above-Grade This would be the number of floors above the ground that are conditioned. Some buildings have lower floors of parking before you get to actual conditioned space. As an example a 10 story building may have 4 floors of parking garage, a mechanical floor, and 5 floors of office space. In a case such as this the answer to the question “number of conditioned floors above grade” would be 5.
Number-of-Conditioned-Floors-Below-Grade This would be the number of floors below the ground that are conditioned. Some buildings have basement levels that are fully conditioned occupied space. As an example a 7 story building may have 2 floors of subterranean parking garage, a basement floor of a retail or administrative space, and 4 floors above ground of office space. In a case such as this the answer to the question “number of conditioned floors below grade” would be 1 because the two floors of subterranean parking garage would be ventilated and are not conditioned.
Brief-Building-Description “There are no right or wrong answers for this question. However, the brief building description should include a few key points: 1- location of the building 2- type of building / use of building 3- structural description 4- occupancy description
Optional information can include (among many other things): 1- amenities 2- surrounding area 3- history 4- future plans
Here are a couple examples: ”“The Herzog Center overlooks the sparkling Crystal Bay in the heart of a vibrant downtown. The 12 story, steel and granite, high-rise has abundant, flexible space and five-star service Convention Center and Conference Center use making it the meeting planner's choice for hosting major conventions, trade shows, meetings and special events. It also features 7 floors of multitenant office space providing businesses with easy access to the international airport, train terminal, and the downtown business core.””
““The Herzog Center is a 12 story, postmodern high-rise office building with a Convention/Conference Center. Construction started in 1989 and was completed in January of 1991. It has a steel frame with poured concrete over steel deck making up the floors. The curtain wall is red granite with colored vision glass. There are three floors of conference center, one floor of mechanical equipment seven stories of office use, and one floor of retail. It is 3.5 miles from the international airport in 0.6 miles from the train station located in downtown.””“
Building-Photo Upload a photo that best represents your subject. You may click browse and search for the photo that you want to include. You do not need to optimize your photos ahead of time. Our system will automatically resize your photos to fit into our report format. However, you may want to crop your photos appropriately before you upload to make sure that the subject of the photo takes up the majority of the space within the photo. If your subject is too small for the overall size of the photo, the subject may be unrecognizable if the photo is resized to a smaller size.
System-Summary “In the space function and system section, you will have an opportunity to clearly and accurately described the different areas in your facility. Let's take a small industrial building as an example. This particular building has a front door where customers enter into a reception area followed by a conference room, individual offices, and open cubicle area, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a warehouse. In this example, seven different spaces should be described. While most areas are singular, the individual offices in the two bathrooms have multiples of the same design. While listing every single office and at individual bathrooms will give you the best results, it is typically not necessary for purposes of ASHRAE level 1 report. You can therefore create a space name of ”“private offices”” and another one called ““restrooms””. If you're building has multiple floors you may want to repeat this process for each floor unless these floors are virtually identical to each other.
Let's look at that as another example. A 10 story building has multiple tenants, but one tenant has four floors that were designed exactly the same. You could then create a space name like “7th-10th floor office suite”. This is typically acceptable for ASHRAE level 1 standards. If also typically acceptable is listing all your restaurants together as they are frequently designed the same.
For each space that you create, there are four types of data that are requested. The first tab is the function of the area. The functions are listed utilizing the ASHRAE defined types of functions. The second tab is lighting. This is where you will describe the type of lighting, controls, and the intensity of the light and also you can record how bright the lights are (foot candles) among other data. You can also upload a photo of the lights or perhaps of the ceiling in general. Although photos are not required for this section, it does add value to your report. The third tab is HVAC. This is where you can describe the type of air conditioning that services the space and input details like temperature setpoint, type of system, capacity, problems, etc.. You can also upload a photo of the air-conditioning or perhaps of the thermostat. The last tab is for an image of the space. Frequently it is of great value to include a photo of the space you're describing in order to make it easily recognizable to someone who is reading the report.“
Space-Name Create a space name for your spaces like, “Suite 100” or “Restrooms”. If you're building has multiple floors you may want to repeat this process for each floor like “5th Floor Restrooms” unless all of these rooms on all floors are virtually identical to each other.
Let's look at that as another example. A 10 story building has multiple tenants, but one tenant has four floors that were designed exactly the same. You could then create a space name like “7th-10th floor office suite”.
Location Adequately describe the location of this space like, “3rd floor North Side.
Function-Type Click in the box to pop up a menu of the ASHRAE defined function types and select the type most suitable for your space.
Conditioned-Area Please input the amount of square footage associated with the space.
Space-Usage Please input how many hours this space is utilized. Format your input similar to this; “68 hours/week”, or “80 hours/monthly”, or “160 hours January and February only”.
Lighting-Type Please select the most predominant type of lighting technology used.
Typical-W-ft2 The ASHRAE level 1 recommendation is to list the lighting power intensity. This is referenced as watts per square foot. A simple way to do this is to count the number of light fixtures in a certain size area and then calculate the resulting watts per square foot. For instance in a 40' x 50' room you have 2000 ft.² if you have 36 fixtures that each have two 32 W bulbs installed with a balance that consumes 6 W, then your lighting system as a power of 2520 W. when you divide this wattage by the 2000 ft.² in the room, you get a lighting power density of 1.26 W per square foot. This would be your answer.
Design-of-Controls Most common types of lighting controls are switches, occupancy sensors/motion sensors, timers, and photocells. Although you may have more than one type of lighting control in the space, please select the one that operates the majority of the lighting.
Foot-candles “Light level meters can be purchased for low cost, so it makes sense to get one for performing energy audits. It is best to take readings at night to prevent infiltration of sunlight from making it appear that a facility may have too much lighting. Readings should be taken at the working surface. The Illuminating Engineering Society publishes illuminance recommendations in table form. These tables cover both generic tasks (reading, writing etc), and 100's of very specific tasks and activities (such as drafting, parking, milking cows, blowing glass and baking bread). All tasks fall into 1 of 9 illuminance categories, covering from 20 to 20,000 lux, (2 to 2000 foot-candles). The categories are known as A - I, and each provide a range of 3 illuminance values (low, mid and high). See Table 1. Although only a lighting designer can make recommendations, we want to give you the following as possible examples; Category A might be a sidewalk leading to a building or parking lot, B might be a corridor, C might be restrooms, D might be desks where computers are used, E might be drafting or drawing desks, F and G might be manufacturing or assembly, H and I might be fine assembly or surgery. A-C for illuminances over a large area (i.e. lobby space) D-F for localized tasks G-I for extremely difficult visual tasks
TABLE 1
IES ILLUMINANCE CATEGORIES and VALUES - for GENERIC INDOOR ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY CATEGORY LUX FOOTCANDLES
Public spaces with dark A 20-30-50 2-3-5 surroundings
Simple orientation for short B 50-75-100 5-7.5-10 temporary visits
Working spaces where visual C 100-150-200 10-15-20 tasks are only occasionally performed
Performance of visual tasks of D 200-300-500 20-30-50 high contrast or large size
Performance of visual tasks of E 500-750-1000 50-75-100 medium contrast or small size
Performance of visual tasks of F 1000-1500-2000 100-150-200 low contrast or very sm size
Performance of visual tasks of G 2000-3000-5000 200-300-500 low contrast or very sm size over a prolonged period
Performance of very prolonged H 5000-7500-10000 500-750-1000 and exacting visual tasks
Performance of very special I 10000-15000-20000 1000-1500-2000 visual tasks of extremely low contrast
Percentage-of-lamps-not-functioning Estimate the percentage of lights that should be functioning but are not. This does not include lighting that is turned off for preference.
Operating-and-Maintenance-Problems List any operating for maintenance problems associated with this particular system. An example might be that the occupancy sensor is not working.
Image-Upload This is where you can upload a photo of the lighting system or lighting controls.
Unoccupied setback describes the function of changing temperature and humidity setpoints as well as pumping pressure and circulation setpoints to a more energy-efficient level when the building is unoccupied. You can add as many types of systems as you need to and then use the drop-down menu to select the type of setback control.
Building-Shell-Characteristics ASHRAE has defined specific types of construction codes associated with walls and doors, windows, roofing, and floors. Start adding the characteristics of your building one description at a time. For instance describe the wall construction by selecting the proper ASHRAE code.
Construction-Code Please select the proper ASHRAE designation for the building shall characteristic you wish to describe.
Label Please input a name or label that clearly associates with the characteristic you are describing. An example would be, “stairwell exit doors”, or “south facing façade”.
R-Value If the wall, roof, or floor you are describing is insulated, then put the R-value of the installation here.
Glass-Shading-Coefficient “This is also known as a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient. This is the fraction of solar radiation admitted through a window or skylight, both directly transmitted, and absorbed and subsequently released inward. The solar heat gain coefficient has replaced the ”“Shading Coefficient”” as the standard indicator of a window's shading ability. It is expressed as a number between 0 and 1. The lower a window's solar heat gain coefficient, the less solar heat it transmits, and the greater its shading ability. SHGC can be expressed in terms of the glass alone or can refer to the entire window assembly. A very thin, clear, single pane of glass may have a solar heat gain coefficient of up to 0.98 which means that virtually all of the solar heat radiation is passing through the window. Double and triple pane glass windows with ”“Low-E”” coatings and films can achieve under 0.25 SHGC. Enter the coefficient associated with your windows here.“
Area “Input the amount of surface area exposed here. This may require simple calculations such as inches of width x inches of height divided by 144 and then multiply that times the number of windows you have. If there's no real way to calculate the number of square feet it may be estimated by taking the curtain wall height and width and multiplying it by the percentage of the wall that is covered by windows.”
Rebates-Incentives “This is a WYSIWYG import section. You can either type in the rebates that are available in your area, or you can go to the website of the utility or service that is offering the rebate, then copy and paste the description of the rebate in this box. Checking for rebates and incentives is clearly listed as one of the guidelines within the ASHRAE level 1 audit. If there are no rebates available, do not skip this section, but explained that there are no rebates available before moving on.”
Rebate-Incentive-Description Type in a description or copy and paste a description from the rebate provider's website.
Amount Enter the amount of the rebate here.
Building-Revisions “Building revisions refer to changes that the building has undergone through its existence. For instance a building may have been designed for one purpose when it was originally built, and then it's use or type of occupancy has changed into a different form somewhere along the way. Like changing from an apartment building to a hotel. This is just one example of a building revision. Another type of building revision is if any one of the systems within the building has changed. Examples of systems changes might be: Changing the controls from pneumatic tube Direct Digital Control Changing from one form of refrigeration to another such as upgrading to centrifugal chillers from reciprocating chillers Changing from a two pipe HVAC system to a four pipe HVAC system Upgrading a building automation system Changing to electronic elevator controls Installing solar window film. Installing solar panels or photovoltaic cells Changing from steam boilers to high efficiency hot water boilers”
Type-of-Revision Input a description of the type of revision here. For instance, it might be an occupancy revision or a mechanical systems revision.
Description Provide a thorough description of the revision both before and after in order for the reader to gain a clear understanding of what was done and why.
Image You can optionally upload a picture of the revised system here.
Operation-and-Maintenance Maintenance problems can either be known or discovered during the course of the audit. Simple examples would be a cooling tower filtration system that has a leak and therefore cannot be operated, and air handler that trips an overload on hot days, a chiller that has difficulty starting when it's cold outside, etc.
Title Input a name or description of the type of problem here. An Example would be, “Premature Boiler Burner Failures”
Description Provide a thorough description of the problem and, hopefully a potential solution, in order for the reader to gain a clear understanding of the problem. An Example would be, “Boiler burners should last several years before replacement. Ours are only lasting one season.”
Image You can optionally upload a picture of the problematic system here.