Commercial Building Initiative: Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating Pilot Project Training Session (text version)
BTP is looking for commercial building owners, managers, or operators to provide feedback. Participants will receive an asset rating and cost-effective energy recommendations for each building entered as well as technical support. To join the pilot, please complete the information form and return it to asset.rating@ee.doe.gov.
If you would like to preview the free commercial building energy asset rating program and receive energy efficiency recommendations tailored to your buildings, join our pilot program.
The initial "Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating Pilot Project Training Session" webinar was presented on May 17, 2012 and May 18, 2012. You can view the presentation slides and listen to a recording of the webinar (WMV 76 MB). Following is the text version of the webinar.
Nora Wang:
Okay. Great. This is DOE Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating Training Webinar. And it's 11:00 Eastern time and 8:00 Pacific time. We'll give a few minutes for folks to sign in. Our webinar will start momentarily. Thanks for your patience.
Yes. We'll start in a minute. Welcome, everyone. Good morning. I'm Nora Wang with Pacific Northwest National Lab. And Will Gorrissen and I will be the presenter today. I'm glad that you could join us today for our training. And thank you for participating in the Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating Pilot Project.
Before we begin, I have a few logistical announcements. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. You may ask a question at any time during the presentation by using the public chat function at the bottom of the screen.
We will unmute everyone's phone at the end of the presentation so you can also ask questions or start a discussion with us directly. So after we open the line, and please make sure you mute your phone if you're not talking. And please do not put the phone on hold. Otherwise, everyone will be listening to your hold music.
During the presentation, at any time, you can go to full screen by clicking the magnifier button on the screen. It's below the raise-your-hand button on the top of the slide.
Okay. Cody Taylor from the Department of Energy is also joining us today. He's managing the Energy Asset Rating project. Before we start our training, we would like to have (Cody) to give a quick overview of the pilot project. (Cody), please begin.
Cody Taylor:
Great, thanks Nora. And thank you all for agreeing the to join the pilot. This pilot of DOE's Commercial Building Energy Asset Rating Program is really important to us and is going to be extremely helpful in ensuring the success of the rating.
We're still actively developing the program and certainly expect that there will be some challenges and that we are committed to doing our best to address those challenges in a timely fashion. So please do provide us feedback, especially feedback on anything that could be improved or is confusing or is more difficult than it should be.
And, you know, we're trying our best to roll this out in a way that we think makes sense and is easy to use. But I'm sure we haven't nailed everything exactly on the first time round. So we're all ears about that feedback.
And please feel free also to let us know if you have any questions as you're the rating tool. Others may end up having the same questions. And anything we hear is going to help us make it better.
Also in the same spirit, please know that things are still evolving. We're still trying to figure out the best way to present some of the information, for example. So what the actual label will look like or rating will look like that comes out of the tool and what kinds of information are collected in the report that comes out of the rating tool, all of that we're still figuring out.
So again, any feedback there can be very useful too. If you wish it said one thing, something that's not on there, or anything like that, we would love to hear it.
So with that, I'll also just mention that the asset rating, as you've probably heard, is something that we're envisioning as part of a larger long-term ecosystem of tools in this area and of a clear and standardized ratings that can be used across the country.
So we realize this is just one piece. And in isolation, it may not be fully meaningful. But we appreciate you taking the time to test it with us and help us get it ready to join the other tools out there in the market. So thank you very much for being here today.
Nora Wang:
Thanks (Cody). (Will), can you move to the next slide? Thank you.
Today's training is focused on the pilot procedure. If you need more information on the energy asset rating, please visit our Web site. And you can see the Web site address in the middle of the screen.
An early webinar that we hosted in March also included more information about what is energy asset rating, how it can benefit your building, how to read an energy asset rating report, and who can participate in the pilot.
So the recorded webinar and the list of questions and answers are posted on our Web site too. The link is also provided on this screen.
By today, you should have received three documents from us after you submit your building information. They are on the top of the screen.
Energy Asset Rating Stats Sheet is one-page flier that give you a quick overview of what is energy asset rating and what is the pilot project about, what is input and output. And you can share this information with other interested parties. And that'll be helpful.
The second document is the Pilot Program Overview. It's a longer version of the introduction of the pilot project, including all of the detailed activities, and some of them we'll discuss today, and how to participate and what's your expectation and what's our expectation.
The third document is the Data Collection Form. And we'll spend more time to go through the data collection form together during this training.
So if you do not have them yet or you have lost them or want to share the information with others, you can always download the most current versions from our tool Web site. And our tool Web site and also include the user's guide and the most current project documents.
So the link to our tool Web site is at the bottom of the screen. And you will see this link several times during this presentation. Next slide, please. Thanks.
Let's go through the pilot step-by-step. The first step is provide us with your point of contract building information, identify levels involvement. The second step is to receive a pilot project starter kit, including the several documents I just mentioned. So by today, there's two already been checked.
The third step is to participate in a training webinar. That's what we are doing today. So another item is checked.
Next week, you will receive an email about a pre-rating online questionnaire. It only has four questions. And we like to collect your feedback before you even dive into the data collection process.
You will also receive your user account for the energy asset rating tool. The main activities are in the blue box here. Collect data and enter them into the energy asset reading tool. Submit your feedback on data collection. And provide energy model or utility bills if you are an energy asset rating partner.
Please note that you can start the three activities in the blue box even before you receive your user account. I know some of you have started data collection or may have finished that.
The last step is to complete a post-rating online questionnaire, which has 21 questions. This is also a important step of the pilot project for us to get your feedback throughout the whole process, including the tool, the rating report, your data collection, in general, your feedback experience as a data collection general, anything (unintelligible), or any technical issue you have during the pilot process.
We will send you the link to your email at the very end of the pilot. Next slide.
Let's quickly talk about the pre-rating questionnaire. You will receive an email with a unique link. It is unique because your building names have been pre-populated into your survey.
So if you have more than one building, you only need to answer the questionnaire once. You should be able to see a list of the buildings that you submitted to us. If you don't see your building names or see a wrong building name, please let me know.
There are really only four questions. So it'll take you a couple of minutes. Most of the questions are no-brainers. So I highly encourage you, just receive the email, click the link, and complete a questionnaire. Then we won't bother you again about the questionnaire. Next slide, please.
So this is the data collection form. Some of you, as I said, have started collecting data. And if you have not or if you haven't had even opened the document, that's totally fine.
The data collection form serves several purposes. The first - the data entries maps to the to the energy asset rating tool. If you have stored your building data at multiple places, you can just write them down on the form and then enter into the tool later.
If you do not have any data yet, you can use the form for the your site work-through. As we mentioned earlier, you can start a data collection before receiving your log-in ID from us. Entering the data will take you about 15 minutes. And it's a very easy and intuitive tool. And you see that when we'll demonstrate the tool in 5 or 10 minutes also.
We will also use this form to collect your feedback on the difficulty level and confidence level of each data entry. And, for example, the facility type that you see on the screen is a data entry that is easy to obtain with high confidence level. So you choose and 1 and (unintelligible) in the first column.
Another example would be (unintelligible) insulation R value. This might be difficult to get for some building managers. And if you don't have the right documents, you might be also less confident with accuracy of the data. You know, if you just estimate the thickness of the insulation and try to get R value. So in this case, you may say it's medium or difficult to get. You have low confidence or you have some confidence.
So one goal of our program development is to seek the balance between cost and accuracy. So if some data cannot be easily collected by users, we need to re-evaluate our data requirements. That's why your feedback on the data collection process is as important as your feedback on the energy asset rating result.
So the pilot is not just, you know, looking at the rating result. It's evaluating the whole process and how much resource and time and cost for you to get an energy asset rating and how useful the final report is for the building managers. Next slide, please.
Here's some pieces from the data collection form. A few things I want to highlight. A data number - excuse me. My computer just fell asleep. A data number (unintelligible) mark is the required data to run an energy asset rating model. We encourage you to collect as much data as you can for two reasons and not just want you to collect the minimum data.
First, more data will increase accuracy of the modeling results. You know, the more data you provide to the tool and then the result will be closer to the building's actual situation.
And second reason is that if you want to receive a verified reading after the pilot stage, you do need to provide all of the data on the list. During the pilot stage, all energy asset rating results is preliminary, because we might be improving our tool based on your feedback.
During the pilot or maybe at later stage of the pilot, DOE will provide a (unintelligible) on how to get a verified energy asset rating report. That's - this is not a topic of today's training. That's just - want to give you a heads up of the whole process.
If you look at the Data Number 13, 14, 15, there's instructions saying you only need to collect one of these data. That's roof insulation value. If you have R value or U value or insulation (unintelligible), you only need to enter of these three data fields.
And there are some data requirements that are not applicable to all buildings. For example, boilers, Question Number 72 and 73, about boilers. If you do not have boilers in your building, of course, you don't have to enter this data.
So anyway the data collection looks really long. However, you don't really need to collect all of them. Again, the data number with the actual (unintelligible) is the minimum. But we do want to collect more. But you don't need to collect all of them because some may not be applicable and some you only need one of the value.
I received a question here. Why would you have a roof R value and roof U value?
I hope I've explained it clearly. If you have roof R value, you don't need to provide roof U value. If you have - if you don't have R value and U value, you can give us roof insulation thickness. Okay. Next slide, please.
Okay. This is the temporary link to the tools during the pilot. When you log - when you click the link, you see this home page. It's a free tool. The energy asset rating tool is free, provided by DOE. In the future, anyone can sign up on the Web site and create their own user account.
However, during the pilot, only the participants will have access to the tool. The log-in ID will be your email. And we will send you the preset password. You can change your password after you log in.
Please note that when you download the user's guide, you will see instructions on how to sign up and create an account. And this function is disabled during the pilot. So don't be confused.
On this pilot Web site, you can download most current version of pilot materials. And that's listed at the bottom of the screen.
Okay. So now I will give the floor to Will Gorrissen. And he's going to give you a tool demo. And (Will) is leading the tool development at the lab.
Will Gorrissen:
Good morning, everybody. So hopefully you can all see my screen here, which is showing the My Building portion of the tool. If anybody can't see it, then please send a message.
So once you log in, this will be the first thing that you see. And this is the area we're using to allow people - users to manage multiple buildings and indicate the status of different buildings.
So what you see here is two buildings that I've already rated. And they both have their ratings displayed in the lower right-hand corner. Later on, you'll see what happens when a building is waiting to be rated or when it's just been saved.
Buildings can be deleted from here. And you can also get some details about the individual buildings, which I'll show you later after we go through the process of using the tool.
You can also edit your account info. This is where you change your password. You can log out of here. There's also sort of contextual help that will pop up, depending on what screen you're on. So in this case, it's pretty much just telling you how to start a new building. You can also access user's guide or contact us directly.
And that's something I really want to stress that during this pilot you want to - we know you're working with a tool that's still in development, so there's some challenges associated with that. And so we really want to make it as painless as possible and really be there for any questions or issues that arise. You'll have direct access to the full development team. So it hopefully counteract some of the difficulties of working with a tool in the early stages.
So to add a new building, you click here on the new building link. And name your building, something unique, obviously. And so these characteristics on this first window are specific to the entire building. We'll get the contents of blocks very briefly here in a minute, but this - anything you enter here will apply to everything.
So here you enter in the date your building was constructed. This is important because it drives any data that you don't have that can be inferred is driven partially by the date. And so we'll just enter in some information. And zip code is also another - it's how we infer climate zone and a number of characteristics that work in conjunction with the date here to do some (unintelligible).
So I create my building and end up on the building creation workspace. And currently empty because it's a new building, so I will add a block. And you have multiple, different shapes here.
I'm going to just name the block Block 1, for example. And this will create a single block. And currently, we only have individual blocks enabled. And that is generally going to represent most buildings. If you have a single-use type, and it's, you know, a fairly straightforward building, it's going to be just a single block that you'll work with.
So here on this first tab here, these are the building data input tabs. The first one is general geometry and operational characteristics. So you can change these numbers. And the values are reflected over on the display window here.
Here, you have some ways to manipulate the views. With single blocks, it's not all that pertinent. But later, when we starting doing multi-use buildings, being able to identify sort of what you're working on is going to play a larger role.
So here we have, as I said, geometry inputs. The next tab over is the envelope input. And we've tried to sort of capture as much variability as possible with minimum choices. So this is one thing we definitely want feedback on is, you know, how well does your building conform to these limited choices we have. So it's like a standard (unintelligible).
Here is where you can enter different attributes of the roof. And just to get a little bit more detail on that, a question was asked earlier, the R value is actually the insulation R value. I think we need to - we'll make that clearer in the user guide. So it's not just the inverse of U value.
U value is if you happen to know the U value of the entire wall assembly, you can just put that in directly, and that's what will be used. Otherwise, if you enter R value or insulation thickness, it couples with the roof type you selected here to infer some aggregate assembly U values.
So just why we have these three choices. So if I have a (R30) roof, you know, that - the insulation if (R30). The roof itself is, you know, likely something else.
Same with the exterior wall. Tried to pick some standard types here. Again, we love any feedback you have on the choices that we've made. And then you have ground options (unintelligible) insulation here.
So this is fenestration. You can specify skylights. Skylights have to be specified in full with the U value, the (unintelligible) coefficient, and the visible transmittance. If you don't put anything here, it will assume no skylights.
Windows, there's a little bit more flexibility. There's two ways to enter the data. You can either enter it in the physical attributes frame type, the glazing, and, you know, if you have any (unintelligible) or anything. Alternatively, you can just specific the U Value, (unintelligible) coefficient (unintelligible) visible transmittance.
If you don't specify these values here, they will be inferred based on what you put here. So it's just sort of depending on how much data you have. Whichever way works best for you.
In the window layout, we have three options. Basically, you can specify just a window/wall ratio. And we will assume everything else and just distribute a band of windows around your building at a default, still having an offset from the edges.
You can specify the edge offset and the sill height, and the window wall ratio. Again, it's just a - it will do a band of windows and adjust the height just to give you the correct window/wall ratio. You could also specify the street windows, where you specify the width and height of a typical window and then the number of windows or the window/wall ratio, which will give you the - and then we will distribute them throughout the building.
These different situations are - these options are more or less applicable. Often, you sort of - there's not a perfect choice, but this is something we'd like to work with you on.
If you have questions, "Oh, my windows' like this," please just let us know. There's different options for doing weighted averages and just picking what is the typical window. We're happy to share and work with that.
So shading, you specify different shading types. And here, so for external overhang, you specify the height above the window, projection from the window.
Vertical fins, you have - you specify depth and distance between the fins. It assumes there's either, you know, some number across your façade, or only on the edges of your windows. Again, this is - so this kind of interacts with how you've specified our windows up here. So let's go back to various here and enter a window/wall ratio.
For lighting, we have - you can - you just add different fixture types. You select a mounting type and then different technologies here. What's grayed out is stuff that's coming down. It's just not in the database yet. But it's going to soon be here.
And you can specify either a number of fixtures or a percent served, which you'll see in a minute. Percent served is probably the more reliable option just because counting can be difficult, because there's always generally miss a few. And also the percent served is based on our assumptions about the actual light produced by these specific fixtures.
So it's - you know, it just depends. If you have one or two of a certain technology, then you want to count them. If it's most of your building, you know, if you have two technologies in the whole building, then percent served is probably the better way to go.
You can specify different control types. And we will attribute the savings based on those control types to that particular technology. So here I'm going to say I've got (unintelligible) my fixture. And then here, I can specify how much my building may serve.
So you can add as many fixtures as you want. They need to add up to 100% here if you - unless you do some - the counts with the technologies.
This is the HVAC input tab. The thermal zone layout, you define how your building is - this is more a function of the HVAC system and the building dimensions than actual zoning. Usually zoning is more complicated than this. But we try to group spaces that see similar loads.
So, you know, single zone is going to be a building where it's just an open space. A perimeter is going to be something where there's just occupancy on either side. There's not a significant court area that needs to be conditioned. So an example of this may be hotels are often perimeters - perimeter zones. Long, skinny buildings that just have a hallway down the middle, basically, is going to be your perimeter-type buildings.
Perimeter core is a pretty typical deep office building where the center core has much different loading conditions than the perimeters. And then the north-facing side is different from the south-facing side, obviously, because they see different conditions during the day.
So that's just sort of how we've looked at more the idea of a thermal zone that if anyone's more familiar with that than an actual HVAC zone.
And for - if you have a perimeter type, either just perimeter or perimeter core, you have to define the depth. And so this would usually be the depth of the first wall from your windows. So if you have offices around the perimeter and your offices tend to be, you know, 10 feet deep, and then that would be your perimeter depth.
So typical number is 15 feet. And then the HVAC system configuration just defines where, you know, if you have a single-zone system where you have one for every zone per floor, you know, per orientation, these are just sort of if you have multiple-zone systems, then it will group these thermal zones together and serve them by a single system. It'll group then either by orientation. By floor is pretty typical. That's sort of the role that plays.
The combined heat and cool system is related mostly to recommending upgrades to existing systems. If something can only be - if a cooling system is integrated with a heating system, they both have to be upgraded. So that's kind of how we define that.
So if you have a system where you could just swap out the cooling and you wouldn't have to replace the heating, then your systems are not combined. On the other hand, if it's one unit and if you replace it, then you have to replace them both, then it would be a combined system.
So an example of a combined system is an (unintelligible) heat pump. You can't just swap out the heating section, or, you know, a true wall unit in a hotel would also be a combined system. Separate systems would be a chiller and a boiler. Even if they both served the same air handling unit, they're considered separate systems because the primary pieces of technology can be swapped out independently.
Again, here we've tried to sort of limit the options, yet maintain the flexibility we need. And so, you know, we definitely want feedback about how these inputs conform to your systems, what's missing, how would you like to terminology, that sort of thing.
So we have, you know, basically thermal DX and - or DX and chillers are the technology we have now and then just sort of different applications. So I'm going to pick multi-zone DX.
Your manufacturer here is used to infer the efficiency. So this is sort of a - and if you don't know the nominal efficiency of your system, you can enter your manufacturer and it will infer some value.
It won't infer particularly stellar value just because it's sort of - be very average. So if you have more detail and you know your equipment, its performance levels, it's generally better to enter that into the efficiency here. So just pick some typical number.
The capacity and the number of pieces of equipment, again, are used to infer efficiency, basically because we infer efficiency based on size. And we - you know, a much - a larger chiller is going to be a centrifugal chiller. A smaller chiller might be a screw or a scroll chiller. So if you specify these equipment, we will - it will impact this efficiency rating.
Heating, again, we have a limited number of technologies. Go for boiler here so you can see - like Nora mentioned earlier, there is some things that are only applicable to specific technologies. So we've tried to make it in the (UI) that you don't - if some inputs aren't applicable to your technology, you don't see them.
So with boiler, you have specify distribution type. And so we're going to pick multi-zone air handling unit. You know, this just impacts the efficiency of your boiler. Again, your manufacturer is, again, used to infer the efficiency. So if you have an efficiency, then you're in good shape.
Fuel type is pretty self-explanatory. The fan motor efficiency, fan efficiency can be inferred, or they can be values that you enter. They're generally different to find the values, so, you know, it's - we're curious to know if people actually have this level of detail. But they - you know, they can be inferred.
Hot water is here. And this is domestic hot water. You can specify fuel type, a distribution type. So this is distributed as sort of a typical like residential-style system or smaller system where you just have tank at one end and a sink or shower on the other. Looped is much - is for larger systems. Like in hotels, you'll have a circulated loop between the hot water source and the use to make sure that the hot water comes right away.
So and then you just enter some general characteristics, you know, efficiency of your system, volume. And, here, you can either enter a thickness of your insulation or, again, an insulation R value similar to with the opaque instructions.
Here we have some use-type information. So this is - it's important to know that this is not actually going to affect your asset rating. This is here to try and tailor the recommendations to your building as much as possible.
So it will influence how we pick the recommendations. But all of the asset rating energy simulations are done with default values for all of these inputs. And those default values are based purely on your use type.
So all offices are going to have the same loads. All schools are going to have the same loads, different, obviously, than an office, but across all schools. That's sort of the - you know, the function of asset rating. So this is - it will impact your energy efficiency recommendations. But just bear in mind that that's what this is for.
And in general, we're looking for the total installed load. And we don't assume that it's ever 100% on. We have default schedules that we run it with.
That's a question that came up yesterday, you know, do you want what's - you know, how do we — do we just sum the total capacity of all equipment or is it some other number? And so, in general, you want to just put the equipment you have in here.
Of course, there's gray areas where you have some really low capacity factor equipment that, you know, uses a lot of energy, but uses it once a year. And then that might throw things off if you put it in here. So you have to - there's some gray area there that if you have any questions, please contact us.
So now you can save your building. And we'll save it to your My Buildings. So you go back here and it's in the webinar (unintelligible) here. Unfortunately, we seem to (unintelligible) the image.
And then you can go back into your building. You can affect - you can change the building level attributes here with this little information, building info button.
Again, you have this context help that comes up when you click here that will tell you what different functions do. And again, please don't hesitate to contact us.
And then you just click rate your building. And you get some warnings here about how long it will take and how you can't make changes once it's being rated.
And this is just some extra, extra reinforcement of the idea that, you know, this is currently in development. And we really hope to make changes based on your guys' input. So things may change over time. We just - we want to make sure you're aware of that.
And if you have concerns with any of the results that you're seeing, please let us know, and we will investigate. And we're going to be keeping track of everything from, you know, from behind the scenes anyway.
So we just want to make double sure that you realize this is a work in progress. And, you know, we hope to work together to make it useful as possible.
Then you go back to your buildings. And again I apologize for the image missing here. And so now your building is waiting for a rating. And you can't do anything with it. It's there. It's gone off to our server here at the lab. And it's running a couple of energy models and doing its thing.
I have some examples here that I've done before. And we'll go and see. So this is a, you know, past building. And this is what happens once your building has been rated.
You get your current asset rating. And the attributes that you input into your building here, this sort of helps you get a feel, make sure everything's correct. And helps you compare what's going on.
You can get the full rating report by clicking on this link here. And I will (unintelligible) through this. It takes a minute (unintelligible) have to build it from the database. Nora, are you going to go through the report in the computation? Or should I discuss it?
Nora Wang:
Well, either way.
Will Gorrissen:
Well it's up now. So here is the asset rating report. So again, this is some of the information you saw before. This compares the - so we have three values here, three ratings. We have the - this is your building as it currently stands. You have the source the energy. This is the result of the energy plus energy model here given your inputs and how that maps to the asset rating points scale.
We also have a potential asset rating here, which is what your building - the model results of your building given the energy conservation measures that we recommend. So that's - you know, this gives you an idea of given if you pursue these particular options, this is where, you know, you might possibly end up.
We also provide a - this is just for comparison value. It doesn't impact your score at all. It's the DOE reference buildings models in your weather location.
Nora Wang:
(Will), can you double-check your screen. I'm viewing your...
Will Gorrissen:
Oh.
Nora Wang:
...your presentation screen.
Will Gorrissen:
How's that?
Nora Wang:
Yes, thank you.
Will Gorrissen:
Sorry about that, guys. So we have the points up here is your building. As I said earlier, the points down here are where you might potentially be. And so in this case 69 points is your potential asset rating if you execute the ECMs.
The 53 points here is the - is again the typical building. So depending on what you've put in, it will select a different building and the energy consumption in your region.
The difference between the current asset rating and the (unintelligible) asset rating is reflected here in this potential estimated energy savings. And the payback of the -sort of the estimated payback of the energy conservation measures is reflected here at the 15.1.
These numbers are preliminary. And how it's displayed is going to change. This level of precision is not going to remain.
So here we have some system-level details that rate how your systems are performing and comparing them to - the reference case.
So this deals with your envelope fabric. And then this deals with your individual building systems, actually looking at how much energy each system consumes. And it indicates whether or not we've identified an opportunity for that specific system.
Here, again, just comparison of the different buildings and showing both the source energy and then this - the white bar on the colored bar indicates your site energy just to give you an idea of how those two things stack up.
And last page here is your recommendations that you'll receive. Again, the language here is going to change. But this gives you a savings and a payback for each.
And this savings will not necessarily add up to the total savings because this saving's looking at individual pieces. And the total savings looking at sort of an integrated full package, so something that to bear in mind.
And that is basically covers the report and the tool. I'm going to pass the floor back to Nora. And I'll take any questions at the end of the talk. Thank you.
Nora Wang:
(Will), can you move to the next slide? Thanks.
So this is basically the report (Will) just discussed a moment ago. And I just want to emphasize again in all of the reports you receive during the pilot period is a preliminary.
If we change something at a backend, you may get an updated report. The change will be minor. We'll send an email and let you know a new report is available and what are those changes. So again, this is a work in process between us and you. Next slide, please.
The last step is the pre-rating questionnaire. This is very similar to the - sorry, the post-rating questionnaire is very similar to the pre-rating questionnaire. It's slightly longer because now you're gone through all of the process of collecting data, entering into the tool and seeing the report. So we want to get your feedback.
So the questionnaire has 21 questions. Again, you should see a list of your building names. You may want to have several people completing this questionnaire if the data are collected or entered by different people and some others are managing the report.
So we will provide a list of questions and post it on our pilot tool Web site. So in that case, you can have a hardcopy and distribute it among the team. But we only accept answers through the online system. So please do not send us the Microsoft Word version to us.
In the mean time, if you have any questions, please let us know. We try to simplify the whole process and make it as easy as possible for you. Next slide, please.
So this last slide is talking about the different levels of participation. We have energy asset rating partner and associate. So if you have sign up as an associate, you will need to complete all of the activities that we just discussed.
As a partner, you have an additional activity. That is to provide us with your existing 12 months information and your energy star rating if you have them, or energy audit report and energy model that you did before. If you have both and would like to share with us, that would be great. And we'll accept both. Next slide, please.
So this slide just quickly show you that we're going to provide you a Word - Microsoft Word version document to help you to put together your information from your previous energy audit and result.
Basically, we want to see what are those model (assumption) and what are the model results and what recommendations you receive from your previous energy audit and how does it compare to the automated generated recommendations through the energy asset rating process. Next slide, please.
And this is really the last slide. This is to show you how we're going to collect your information about your energy star rating and utility information. If you're using (unintelligible) manager and you be very familiar with one of the form. It's basically the (unintelligible) information manager are collecting the (unintelligible) because we have different building types and you just need to choose the proper building type, enter the information for your building.
And also we have a table to collect your energy use. Again, we just need you to choose the one that is applicable for you, based on your (fill) time and what you are paying throughout whole year. Next slide.
Yes. That's the end of the presentation. And we're going to open the line in a minute. So, Gail, please unmute everyone. In the mean time, I can —
Woman:
All participants are now in interactive talk mode.
Nora Wang:
I have received one question.
Woman:
(Unintelligible).
Nora Wang:
Sorry, I have received one question. (Unintelligible) me answer this first. The question is can you (unintelligible) block, for example, high-rise office that has square bottom and u-shaped (unintelligible)?
The answer is at the moment, no. (Unintelligible) allow either to enter multiple blocks. However, we're developing the multiple blocks. It's going to be added during the pilot project, in the pilot procedure.
So this (unintelligible) solution will be enter the high-rise portion as one block. And later on, you can add bottom or you can simplify the whole building. If you want to let us know situation, we can take a look at your building footprint and help (unintelligible) solution.
No questions from the floor? Sorry, did I interrupt someone earlier?
Okay. Feel free to (unintelligible) you have a question. We receive a - several other questions yesterday. I can repeat them here. Somebody asked about the plug load, how you collect plug load. For example, the plug load is not required for the energy asset rating because we're looking at (unintelligible) efficiency. You (unintelligible) to customize your building. But I still will mention it doesn't affect your rating results.
They also asked if they can draw a customized footprint. The answer is no. The concept of the energy asset rating tool is to simplify the data collection and data entering process. We're not really building another complicated, you know, online modeling too. So we want to simplify the building shape. But in the mean time, keep the accuracy of the result.
So our basic footprint should be able to cover most of the building types. If your building is really complicated (unintelligible) multiple block feature in the future to (unintelligible) several blocks together to represent (unintelligible).
I have a question here. How do you handle (unintelligible) unit? (Will), do you want to answer that question?
Will Gorrissen:
In this case, we are just going to look at them s integrated DX units with (unintelligible). So as I said earlier, the integrated is going to indicate that you (unintelligible), which (unintelligible) package components. And then you can specify whether that DX is serving a single zone or multiple zones. (Unintelligible) as pretty much going to be (unintelligible) as far as the model is concerned.
Nora Wang:
I see another question on the screen. It's asking what was the third data input name. Well, if you want to go back to the tool, we can take - look at the tab again. What you are asking is (unintelligible) after geometry and envelope.
Will Gorrissen:
Okay. So back on the tool here, are we referring to the fenestration tab, the lighting? So if you have an questions about the naming, I mean, they're all - you can (unintelligible) context help here.
Nora Wang:
Another question. (Will), I think you have answer for this. For a campus-type building, (unintelligible) chilled water connection to a remote if you could explain how do you account for it.
Will Gorrissen:
Yes. We are currently working on (unintelligible) as (unintelligible) shortly (unintelligible) the best bet I think would be just use a chiller and a boiler. And then as soon as we have district, we can just swap out the source of that hot and (unintelligible) ideal, but it will be (unintelligible).
Nora Wang:
Other question, how long do you expect the pilot to stay open? And (Cody), if you are still on the line, do you want to address that question?
Cody Taylor:
Sure. So we're - I guess what we're looking for is for people to - those of you who are on the call and signed up for the pilot to use the tool on your buildings over the next few weeks so that we can collect results and get some - start to get the feedback that we need to make improvements to the tool and understand how - what kind of results folks are getting.
So we don't have a specific time period as in you need to finish data collection and using the tool by two weeks from now and we'll cut it off or anything like that. But our hope is that really over the course of the next month or so, you're able to take the time to use this and let us know how it goes.
Will Gorrissen:
Sorry, I just wanted to reiterate what I said before (unintelligible) audio was cutting in and out. Currently chilled district hot and chilled water are coming (unintelligible). Now, I would just a boiler and a chiller (unintelligible) block out the source of that hot and chilled water when (unintelligible) district comes online.
(Unintelligible) you know, we're happy to make those changes for you. (Unintelligible) all the other building data and then we just change the fuel type when we have that new source.
Nora Wang:
Sorry, that I think, (Will), your audio is still being cutoff. So basically what (Will) was saying is we're adding the district chiller and (unintelligible) to the system. (Unintelligible) district energy that (unintelligible) is asking here.
So if we have any audio program, again, this webinar is recorded. And you can find the recorded webinar from our website. And hopefully the quality of the audio from the recording will be better. If not, or if you still have questions, and please feel free to email me or (Will). And we'll get back to you on your specific conditions during the pilot procedure.
Well, it's one minute to 9:00 Pacific time. Any comments over the phone, please feel free to share with us. So that concludes our webinar today. And thank you everyone, again, for your time. We look forward to working with you. Bye.