EnergyIQ

Cloud-based energy benchmarking for non-residential Buildings

About: Following a review of national efforts at energy benchmarking for non-residential buildings, work on EnergyIQ began in mid-2005. The goal was to provide an energy benchmarking experience that would inform deisgn and operations of efficient buildings and help identify best practices, and help set priorities and goals for energy saving efforts in support of California policies under AB 1103 and 758. We called this "action-oriented benchmarking", a low-cost/low-effort process that sat between very high-level generalized benchmarking and investment-grade energy audits. The tool was designed based in extensive need-based surveys and interviews of prospective users. Key to the process was enabling users to compare themselves to peer groups of their choosing, which included Calfornia  buildings (based on an intricate survey of ~2,800 buildings), nationaly (based on the national CBECS survey of ~5,200 buildings), or other EnergyIQ users. A highly flexible dashboard with extensive graphing capabilities together with extensive metrics (energy, carbon, cost) were offered to meet the widely varying expressed needs of users. As a cloud-based service, the tool could be accessed by any intenet-connected computer. The tool ultimately had ~1200 users, mostlly from larger enterprises managing or servicing fleets of buildings. As of Spring 2014, users had collectively benchmarked their own energy data for 106 million square feet against their peers.

Team: The project was led by Evan Mills and Paul Mathew, with technical contributions by Andrea Mercado. Rob Ramirez at iTron made major contributions in working with the CEUS CEUS and helping quantify energy-savings opportunities. William Bordass from the Usable Buildings Trust in the UK was a valuable conceptual collaborator. Usability.org provided user interface design services. Software engineering and web hosting were provided by Martin Stoufer and Bighead Technologies.  

Sponsors: EnergyIQ was sponsored primarily by the California Energy Commission, with additional support from the California Air Resources Board.

Technical documentation: We produced highly detailed technical documentation of the analysis logic, calculation methods, assumptions, and underlying data. This information remains online.

APIs: The application programming interfaces ("APIs") enabled third-party software developers to tap a remote tool or data feed within a user interface of their own design.

Current Status: Public funding to develop and maintain the site was discontinued, and as of June 2016 and the site was no longer online. 

References

• Mills, E. 2015. “Action-oriented Benchmarking for Non-residential Buildings.” Proceedings of the IEEE, 104(4):697-712 (invited) [PDF]

• Mills, Evan. 2014. EnergyIQ for Action-oriented Benchmarking: Final Report. California Energy Commission. [PDF]

• Mills, E. and P. Mathew. 2012. “EnergyIQ: Action-oriented Benchmarking.” California Energy Commission, CEC-500-2013-070, 52pp. [PDF]

• Web Services that Foster Innovation in Buildings Energy Analysis Tools - 2012 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Asilomar, CA [PDF]

• Mills, E., P. Mathew, N. Bourassa, M. Brook, and M.A. Piette. 2008. "Action-Oriented Benchmarking: Concepts and Tools." Energy Engineering, 105(4):21-40. LBNL-358E [PDF]

• Mathew, P., E. Mills, N. Bourassa, M. Brook. 2008. "Action-Oriented Benchmarking: Using the CEUS Database to Benchmark Commercial Buildings in California." Energy Engineering, 105(5):6-18. LBNL-502E [PDF]

Presentations

• Action-oriented Benchmarking with EnergyIQ [PDF]

• Action-Oriented Energy Benchmarking - ACG 6th Annual Conference on Total Building Commissioning, Las Vegas, NV, April 16, 2010 [PDF]

• Benchmarking: What's Your Building's Energy IQ? - California Energy Commission Benchmarking Workshop, Sacramento, CA, April 2005 [PDF]