Energy Charting and Metrics Tool plus Building Re-tuning and Measurement and Verification (ECAM+)

The Energy Charting and Metrics Tool, which was developed by Bill Koran with support from PNNL, is an add-on for Microsoft Excel® which was developed to facilitate analysis of data from buildings (energy and other data). The tool makes extensive use of Excel pivot tables. Some key features of ECAM+ include: creation of charts to help re-tuning, creation of schedules and day-type information to time series data; filtering data from months, years, days, day-type, day of week, day of month, occupancy, temperature binned weather data, pre/post comparisons after retrofits or retro-commissioning; normalizing data and creating metrics based on consumption or equipment; creation of various load profiles or scatter charts for data selected by the user; new additions to the PNNL re-tuning charts; and new modeling and verification (M&V) for meter data. 

Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM) Webinar Series

The Energy Charting and Metrics (ECAM) Tool Webinar Series is a three-part series of presentations that provide detailed assistance with installation of the tool, show the capabilities of the tool in analyzing metered electrical and end-use data, and familiarize the user with the methodology and functionality of this tool. The first presentation is an introduction to ECAM that walks the user through the installation process, and then provides an example of how to pre-process a simple data file to make it compatible with ECAM input format. The second presentation offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to process interval meter data and generate charts associated with interval meter data. The third presentation offers a step-by-step walkthrough for creating PNNL re-tuning charts and a brief overview of how to analyze those charts to identify opportunities to save energy and reduce energy cost. Recordings of the presentations are available here, along with two practice data files used in the presentations. Please note that the webinar series content was based off an older version of ECAM, and does not address the latest additions to ECAM+. Therefore, some charts generated when following the walkthroughs for the PNNL Re-tuning will be different, and the M&V portion of the tool is not addressed. Please see the updated user guide for details on these features.

Raw Data Examples for use in the Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM)

Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM) requires the data to be arranged in a certain format for analysis. The document (see the sidebar) takes an example raw data from one building automation system and walks through the process of preparing the data for ECAM building re-tuning analysis. This document is for examples where no pre-processing of data is required, only changing the arrangement of the data.

User's Guide to Pre-Processing Data in Universal Translator 2 for the Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM)

The Universal Translator (UT) is a tool that assists in processing and merging data that has non-uniform time intervals or is stored in multiple excel (csv) files. There are some instances where the building automation system will export each trend to its own "csv" file. For example, the data from an air handler will be exported to multiple files. If each trend has its own "csv" file, and the timestamps do not exactly match, then the Universal Translator can be used to merge the data to a uniform timestamp. The file format for import into the UT is "csv" and it exports files as "UTF." The user guide shows the user where to download the program (UT program) and gives examples of importing, merging, and exporting the data that is compatible with ECAM.

Interval Data Analysis with the Energy Charting and Metrics Tool (ECAM)

The interval data guide is written specifically for the analysis of whole building electricity interval data in ECAM. It gives a detailed walkthrough of running the data through ECAM, and gives examples of all of the charts that can be generated and analyzed through ECAM. These charts range from point history charts to three-dimensional energy profiles for a specific month of the year. The guide offers examples of good and bad operation of buildings based on the charts generated using ECAM. From this, the user will get a general idea of things to look for and correct in their building, and how the energy profile of the building changes with time.

Energy Savings Modeling of Large Office Commercial Building Re-tuning Measures

PNNL conducted a study to estimate, through simulation, energy savings for common re-tuning/RCx measures. The study investigates and documents savings from a set of re-tuning measures that improves the operating efficiency of large office buildings (>100,000 sf). The re-tuning measures are associated with both air- and water-side HVAC systems.

The savings were estimated using the EnergyPlus building simulation software. Eight EnergyPlus input files can be downloaded for your use. These files have an .idf extension, but can be opened in any text editor, as well as by the IDF Editor in EnergyPlus version 6.0. To use these files with other versions of EnergyPlus may require some changes. These files are representative sampling of 8 of the 864 total input files used for the simulation work that serves as the basis of the report.

Included in this sample are the input files for the baseline model, for Combination 1, Combination 2, and Combination 3. There are two versions of each of these, one for the pre-1980 vintage building prototype and one for the post-1980 vintage prototype. Each of the 8 files includes the specification of the building envelope components specific to DOE Climate Zone 5A, for which the intended city for simulation is Chicago, IL.

Impact of Commercial Building Controls on Energy Savings and Peak Load Reduction

PNNL conducted a study to estimate, through simulation, energy savings for common Re-tuning measures. The savings were estimated using the EnergyPlus building simulation software. A collection of EnergyPlus input files can be downloaded for your use. These files were used in the simulation and analysis of energy savings that appear in PNNL's May 2017 report "Impacts of Commercial Building Controls on Energy Savings and Peak Load Reduction" (PNNL-25985). The input files are organized into 18 folders; each one contains the input files for one of 9 simulated building models and for each model, either a set of individual energy efficiency measures (EEMs), or a set of packages of EEMs.