They're present in or on nearly every building you visit, tracking every drop of water, every stray kilowatt, every wisp of natural gas. They're on duty 24-7, and the information they carry is vital to your organization's bottom line. Ideal workers, they never complain, seldom need attention, and perform with near flawless precision. In fact, they're so reliable that it’s easy to take them for granted. But our advice is: Don’t Miss Your Meters.

We’re talking about your commodity meters here. Those silent sentinels that quietly gather the consumption data that drives your sustainability and efficiency efforts and helps determine your success or failure.

This month we’re mixing in some EnergyCAP Q&A into our blog.

A frequent question that comes up in sales conversations is how our energy management software actually finds billing errors.

They're not as glitzy as a shiny new solar array or as smart as a new smart meter, but monthly utility bills and the energy information they provide are the foundation for most successful energy management programs. If you're not using utility bills to track your energy use and cost, you're probably missing energy-saving opportunities. And if you're not tracking with energy management software, you may be missing more.

Here are seven reasons why you should use utility bill tracking software.

EnergyCAP Professional users, this post is for you! As you know, we're converting clients to the new online version from the installed desktop version. More than 65% of clients have already made the switch and are receiving the benefits of the online version.

Degree days represent the only weather metric that is consistently used in the context of building energy use. Heating degree days represent a need for heating to maintain a comfortable temperature in a building.

Cooling degree days represent a need for cooling to maintain a comfortable temperature in a building. But how are degree days and balance points calculated? 

The newest release of EnergyCAP contains seven exciting features to increase your effectiveness. These improvements include: chargeback submeter distribution, meter reading routes, rate creation, channel management, target line comparison, custom audits, and an EnergyCAP API.

To learn more, watch the highlight video or read the summary list.

Previously we have blogged on the advantages and disadvantages of electronic billing. Today we’ll look at five ways you can avoid the drudgery of hand-keying utility bills into your energy management software

Energy benchmarking is a way of deriving value from your available energy data by comparing the performance of multiple peer group members. It's a way of determining how a place, building, or meter ranks in comparison with similar places, buildings or meters.

Benchmarking can deliver significant payback if it's done right. Here are four keys to effective energy benchmarking. We'll use EnergyCAP benchmarking charts for examples.

In a previous blog, we discussed how many organizations use a certain type of measurement and verification (M&V) for measuring the effectiveness of their energy management initiatives. But this blog is not about the “how”. This blog is more about the “why”.

Many of us encountered the metronome in childhood experiences with a musical instrument. I spent many hours practicing with it while learning to play the piano. The metronome is a pendulum-like device for marking time like a clock. Except the tick-tock is loud, and you can adjust the speed with a sliding weight mounted on the pendulum. If you’d like to learn more about it, there is a very entertaining metronome entry in Wikipedia.

Value of the Metronome

A campus chargeback is the allocation of campus-generated utility usage and cost to individual buildings that are served by the “in-house” system. Other names for chargebacks are: allocations, rebillings, or distributions. In essence, the facilities management department is the local utility vendor.

Doing chargebacks can be complicated, so let's look at the benefits. Here are eight ways campus chargebacks are useful.

Most of us have seen the blue ENERGY STAR label--perhaps on a water heater, a refrigerator, or an air conditioner. And according to a recent study, most of us understand that the ENERGY STAR label conveys a message of energy stewardship and efficiency.

At EnergyCAP, we also understand its importance to our customers and audiences, most of whom are aware that an ENERGY STAR ranking and/or certification is available for whole buildings (not just for appliances).

But despite that knowledge, many building owners across the country are not tracking their energy use with this free online tool.

Here are five incentives for ENERGY STAR tracking:

Are you wasting your time on Measurement and Verification, also called Cost Avoidance?

With the increase in mandated greenhouse gas (GHG) tracking by some organizations and governmental institutions, it’s important to understand what needs to be tracked, and how to track it.

For many institutions, utility bill-based tracking is all that is needed to meet basic reporting requirements. This blog explains how utility bill-based tracking fits into the larger picture of detailed GHG tracking and reporting processes.

Most GHG tracking mandates specify six gases which must be tracked:

Are you overwhelmed by entering your monthly utility bills? Cartoon Bill was too.

Then he made a big improvement.

We often receive questions about integrating our energy management software in an EDI utility bill invoicing/payment process. Because EDI can be complex, we’re devoting this post to an explanation of EDI for utility bills.

NOTE: If you're wondering if electronic utility bills are right for your organization, read this earlier post.

First, EDI does not refer to all electronic utility bill information sharing. Rather, EDI refers to a very specific closed-loop invoice and payment exchange between the vendor and the customer. There are a lot of EDI standards out there, but EDI 810 is the standard for invoicing and paying utility bills.

EDI History

When selecting a single commodity (such as Natural Gas), is it still all utilities in total cost or just Natural Gas?

The Natural Gas Commodity Auto-Group is only including Natural Gas meters and their associated bills.

If you can’t quantify energy savings, you might be wasting your time.

When EnergyCAP references an LDC (Local Distribution Company), what does it mean to clients located in New York State?

In New York State, Local Distribution Companies are referred to as the “T&D” (Transmission and Distribution) companies.

The meter serial number should be stated on the bill and can be matched to the serial number stored in EnergyCAP. If the serial number is not stated on the bill, contact the Supplier Company to ask what meter is being supplied.

EnergyCAP Bill Entry Templates were created to match the SUNY billing scenarios. Look through the existing Bill Entry Templates, with the Vendor Name included in the Template Code, for one that has Line Items for both T&D and Supply.

Can we email reports?

Yes. After running an EnergyCAP Report, it can be exported to a selected format and saved. The saved report can then be attached to an email. If the desire is to email a report, or multiple reports, on a regularly scheduled basis, a Report Distribution Group can be created.

Currently, we can only find out about PV and Wind if we know what Campuses have these renewable energies. Are you thinking of creating a Tab for Renewable Energy, similar to the one for GHG?

No. We created a ‘Renewables’ Meter Group Category with Groups of ‘SOLAR’ and ‘WIND’ in the "Groups & Benchmarking" Manager for the SUNY System. Renewable energy Meters can be added to these Groups for analysis and these Groups can be used to filter EnergyCAP Reports to report on consumption and cost information.

We do not currently offer a PowerView or Report like this, but it sounds like a really great idea. An enhancement request will be made to the EnergyCAP Development Team.

EnergyCAP uses the published factors from eGrid, for Electricity, and IPCC, for fossil fuels. We applied the Power Pool Sub-region factors and they are applied to all parts of the state. Reviewing the GHG Factors applied to meters at different Campuses throughout the State, the GHG Factors are the same.

We sat down with John Pierce, Senior Project Manager in the Implementation Solutions Department, to glean insight about bill entry for university and campus users in EnergyCAP.

How do we make an Account Inactive?

At this time, the Account Status cannot be changed to ‘Inactive’ using EnergyCAP Online.  The Account Status can be set equal to ‘Inactive’ using EnergyCAP Enterprise.  Please contact either SUNY Central Administration, or EnergyCAP, to request that an Account be made ‘Inactive’.

Yes, the consumption and costs for an ‘Inactive’ Account will be included in the EnergyCAP PowerViews.  The consumption and costs for ‘Inactive’ Accounts are excluded, by default, from EnergyCAP Reports.  However, clearing the ‘Bill Account is Active’ filter for the Report will result in the consumption and costs for both ‘Active’ and ‘Inactive’ Accounts to be included in the Report.

On March 26, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy recognized 118 organizations for their commitment to saving energy and protecting the environment. About 1,000 guests attended the banquet in Washington, DC.

EnergyCAP Online Release 2.12.0 has been officially released to all EnergyCAP-hosted clients, and the product's powerful new bill management options should be a welcome addition to the web-based version. Non-hosted clients will benefit from the new functionality in a few short weeks.

A new and upbeat EnergyCAP video takes a playful look at Cost Avoidance while asking important questions that highlight the value of meaningful measurement.

It's official--the #2 provider of automated benchmarking ENERGY STAR services is EnergyCAP, Inc.

The EPA's ENERGY STAR News (Automated Benchmarking Edition) for October 2 has featured EnergyCAP, a 2011 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year.

EnergyCAP and Accuweather have partnered in a new data sharing agreement.