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The CCS LOB wanted to work on an Energy and Environmental Optimisation (EEO) program to serve their contractor and dealer partners better. This new initiative was aimed to equip contractors with the knowledge and skills they required to advise the owners of commercial buildings on potential energy retrofits which will lower the buildings' energy usage.
Honeywell is a global leader in aerospace goods and services, building and home control technologies, industrial turbochargers, and performance materials, among other products and services. Specifically, it is widely recognised for its comprehensive selection of energy-efficient products and solutions. For this, the new EEO program was demanded and planned to be designed to aid contractors in assisting building owners in managing fluctuating energy costs, stakeholder expectations, and regulatory or market duties by deploying a wide variety of Honeywell products.
The requirement was to build software that would aid contractors in becoming certified to assess and recommend energy reductions for commercial buildings.
This PC-based software application, designed to direct the contractors, was planned with a simple guide through the EEO life cycle with the following phases.
Performix undertook this EEO project that required the development of a suite of Excel add-ins to deliver the mentioned requirements.
Our engineers developed this software which was built as a collection of interconnected Microsoft Excel workbooks; as such, it calls for an Excel implementation that provides a smooth and intuitive user journey while being straightforward to update in the future.
Performix developed this application using platform-independent Adobe AIR technologies.
The plan was to evaluate the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial facilities and recommend self-paying Honeywell equipment.
This phase filters opportunities based on a predetermined process of opportunity and preparedness questions and grading. The results will help determine if it makes good commercial sense for the user to advance to the on-site Energy Assessment step or whether the opportunity should be placed aside for future consideration or abandoned.
This console was developed to gather the project information and details of the building.
1. Name of Building or Project
2. Address or location - Street number, name, city, state, and zip code
3. Audit Date
4. Public or Private facility
5. Name of Building Manager & Phone
6. Name of Building Owner & Phone
7. Site Engineer & Phone
8. Name of Person Completing the Audit & Phone
9. Building Type (As defined in the CBECS database)
10. Building Category (As defined in the CBECS database link above)
11. Building Use/Application (for mixed-use buildings, assign building type based on the use occupying the most space)
12. Age of Building or Date of construction, if known
13. Original Engineer/Architect
14. Occupancy
15. Number of Floors
16. Square Footage
17. Remaining Useful Life of the Building
18. Name of the present Automation system, if any
19. Is this building on the National Historic Preservation Register?
In the Prospecting phase, the Opportunity Rating step (Figure 2) guides the user through a set of questions to get an objective opportunity rating. Assigning a weighting factor determined by the user to each question guarantees that a score is supplied for comparison purposes.
The Readiness Scoring (Figure 3) evaluates both the user's and the customer's preparedness for an Energy Assessment/Audit. Referring to a reliable set of questions is meant to help the user set expectations and determine how likely an on-site audit will be successful. Assigning a point value to each question guarantees each response has a deal for comparison purposes.
Based on the Opportunity and Readiness ratings, the user must now decide if the opportunity justifies further pursuit or if, based on the scores and preliminary project details, the likelihood of generating a viable business opportunity is minimal. At this time, the project is closed. The project and building information may be retained or archived for consideration during the Prospecting Phase. The Opportunity, Readiness Score, and Opportunity Rating % will all be accessible to the Opportunity Scorecard Template.
This phase of the EEO Lifecycle is accessible at any stage in the EEO process. At this stage, the user, upon selecting the Assessment Phase and will be directed to the Assessment landing page. All the information collected during the Prospecting phase will be accessible during this phase. If this step is skipped, the user will be prompted to return to the Prospecting phase and complete the project information entry.
This Phase consists of the major stage, where the details collected during the prospecting phase are assessed.
The main goal of this phase is to perform a high-level energy evaluation of a building or facility and compare it against industry norms for similar facilities. Here energy-related aspects are considered, and a thorough onsite building walk-through and assessment are done. At least 12 months (24 months is best) of utility bills will be obtained for reference. The energy consumption data will be entered monthly (for future measurement and verification comparison purposes). This information must also be separated by energy source (electric, gas, fuel oil, etc.) The results of this phase will be presented to the facility's key decision-makers. After obtaining a clear commitment to proceed, the user will be directed to the next phase, the "Modeling Phase."
In this stage, specific Building Data will be entered or picked from a list of options provided in the template (Figure 4) and fed into the tool. This information will be accessible for computations in Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) and financial templates and made accessible for output templates as necessary.
This template was designed with the information required to utilise the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Portfolio Manager tool.
Similar to the preceding section, "Building Characteristics," this feature involves collecting data required for uploading into the EPA's Portfolio Manager Tool. This "Energy Data" provides the information and data for the Portfolio Manager tool to complete the Industry Energy Benchmarking required for the output of the Assessment Phase. This information will also be necessary for the user to go to the Modeling Phase, conduct the financial analysis, and update the industry benchmarking based on energy savings implementation actions.
The interface and analysis supplied in the Portfolio Manager tool will provide relevant rating comparisons at this stage and have been included in the Building Opportunity Scorecard. The Energy Star comparison data has been included in the Portfolio Manager assessment and then provided for inclusion in the Building Opportunity Scorecard output.
This console is a set of questions that guide the user in establishing a thought-provoking conversation with the customer to unearth the project's full potential. These questions were structured to allow for simple, multiple-choice responses. The questionnaire includes,
This observation guide was developed to determine whether a retrofit or renovation project proposal will be accepted before proceeding to the stages of energy modeling and project proposal. The user can either submit a building-wide assessment or select specific structure portions.
In addition, the user can utilise this walk-through to identify designated building areas, such as floors 1, 2, etc., or the Front office area, Back office area, Warehouse, Reception, Restrooms, Kitchen, etc. These identifiers are chosen from a menu or tree diagram containing building layout and equipment setup options. This menu also features a selection of common Energy Operations for each building section, such as lighting, security, and HVAC (Heating Plant, Cooling Plant, Air Distribution, Boiler and Steam Distribution, Hot Water, Refrigeration, Compressed Air, Building Envelope, Motors, and Electrical Systems).
The EEO tool includes a CBECS-based building energy consumption comparison as provided by the Environmental Protection Agency's Portfolio Manager tool, as well as an Energy Star comparison rating, including a Carbon Footprint assessment, in addition to the annual energy consumption (BTU/ft2) (broken down between gas and electric), average yearly energy costs (gas & electric), and total average annual CO2 emissions.
All these essential data are entered as instructed on the EPA Portfolio Management website to complete these assessments. Furthermore, the users can also insert and link a thumbnail-sized facility picture to the Building Opportunity Scorecard near the facility name to easily identify their project.
Our developers also provided the ability to select certain charts and graphs via radio buttons because, from the user's perspective, the position of the charts and graphs is advantageous and offers flexibility in the worksheet for them to locate or place these plots as desired.
Here is a summary of the Building Opportunities Scorecard (Figure 5)
