Hello there, I have an issue with EPA energy star portfolio, not sure whether I can address in this forum.
My project is in Dhaka,Bangladesh & it is a factory building. We are working on option C (historical readings) to establish minimum energy performance.
While I was entering our meter readings, I get an error message like this:
"Weather data is not yet available for December 2010 - A rating cannot be computed until the most current weather data is available from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)."
Is there any way to get around this?
Ben Stanley
Senior Sustainability ManagerWSP - Built Ecology
LEEDuser Expert
250 thumbs up
October 15, 2012 - 10:43 am
Getting an Energy Star rating is not necessary for option C but you will have to collect the weather normalized source energy use intensity for the historic and current years.
I would contact Energy Star directly to see if they can help with a solution to get the weather normalized EUI from Portfolio Manager. If not, you could potentially gather historical weather data for the area then do your own weather normalization for the factory's historical energy use. If you need go this route it may be beneficial to submit a LEED interpretation to get prior approval from GBCI.
SENGATHIR SELVAN
HEAD - OPERATIONSairdesign engineered solutions
October 15, 2012 - 11:44 am
Thanks Ben. Alternatively I tried an option of choosing climate condition from the nearest city (Calcutta / kolkotta, India - 240 Km away) & There has been no change in weather normalized source EUI, for sample verification of data.
Will this be acceptable to GBCI?
Ben Stanley
Senior Sustainability ManagerWSP - Built Ecology
LEEDuser Expert
250 thumbs up
October 16, 2012 - 10:31 am
Yes, it should be acceptable if the climate condition in Calcutta roughly matches that of your project location. If it's very different, it would be better to select a different city with a closer match for climate.
Rosana Correa
DirectorCasa do Futuro
31 thumbs up
October 17, 2012 - 2:55 pm
We are having the same problem, our project is in Rio de Janeiro, and Energy Star has no current weather data available for this location. The nearest city is Sao Paulo, but the climate is very different. We already have the historical weather data, does anyone know if there is a way to insert them in the Energy Star database?
Guilherme Ramos
12 thumbs up
October 17, 2012 - 3:19 pm
Try looking for similar climate zones in the US. I think you can set it as a city in Florida. According to ASHRAE 90.1-2007, apendix B1 & B3, climate conditions there (in some cities) matches with Rio de Janeiro conditions.
Rosana Correa
DirectorCasa do Futuro
31 thumbs up
October 17, 2012 - 4:01 pm
We made that to calculate the score that the building would receive. Rio de Janeiro is 1A, same as Miami. But we have a doubt about this path: will LEED accept Energy Star documentation submitted with a location different from the real one?
David Eldridge
Energy Efficiency NinjaGrumman/Butkus Associates
67 thumbs up
October 17, 2012 - 8:45 pm
I don't know if that will work, Rio being in the opposite hemisphere as Miami the weather normalization won't be using the correct season. São Paulo should at least be having summer at the same time.
It would be an interesting experiment to use Miami while transposing the actual monthly utility usage data to match the seasons, but in this case the daily/weekly values won't match even though the annual degree days are similar.
Best option may be to find out how São Paulo got in there and supply the data. Not sure how long that process would take.
Ben Stanley
Senior Sustainability ManagerWSP - Built Ecology
LEEDuser Expert
250 thumbs up
October 25, 2012 - 11:28 am
I agree that reaching out to Energy Star directly to try and determine when the weather data will be available for Sao Paulo is a good option. If the data won't be available soon, Energy Star may also be able to provide guidance on acceptable alternatives to generating a score for that location.