Baseline
A site baseline is generated by comparing a site's current usage to itself at a prior point in time. Typically, the most recent 12 months of usage, costs, and CO2e emissions are compared to that of a weather-normalized, user-defined baseline period. Weather normalization removes the variable of weather in the comparison, giving the user the knowledge that a change in usage is due to building systems, occupancy, or behavior modifications rather than weather. Sites must be baseline-complete to receive analysis.
A site is a collection of buildings and meters. In B3, a site is most often a single physical location or campus. Baselines are created at the site level, not the building level, since multi-building sites share meters and therefore share usage data. Those sites with a black checkmark in the Status column of the Sites list are baseline complete. A summary of sites included is stated at the top of the Sites list, i.e. "Sites (8 of 10 eligible)".
An organization baseline is an analysis of all the whole organization’s baseline-complete sites compared to an organization level baseline period. Individual sites may have specific individual baseline periods with which to compare to however the organization baseline period will be used at the organizational level.
What does baseline-complete mean?
Sites are deemed baseline-complete when they meet the following criteria:
- Site must contain at least one building or flagged as a non-building site (Non-building sites can be designated via Site Editor).
- Each building must have a valid address, city and zip code specified
- Summation of space asset type percentages must equal 100%
- Valid original occupancy date must be specified (if applicable)
- Site must have at least one meter defined
- Every defined meter must contain a continuous 12-month period of meter readings with at least 95% measured usage data. The system does a good job of estimating data when small gaps in usage occur; however, those gaps cannot comprise more than 5% of the total data.
- If a meter has recently been connected, a date connected should be entered to inform the system that no readings prior to that date will be entered
- If a meter is no longer in service, a date disconnected should be entered to inform the system that no readings after that date will be entered
- If a site does not meet these requirements, it can be excluded from organizational metrics by selecting the “Exclude this site from metrics” option in the Site Editor.
Filter Options
Filter button in upper right allows selection of either energy, water or all modes in Baseline metric and selections will be reflected in all values on the tab.
| Energy Sources | By default, all energy sources are included in the benchmark view. Specific source(s) can be selected via the checkboxes in either the energy, water or all modes. |
| Units | By default, units are set to kBtu as a common unit of measure across all energy sources. When sources of the same type are selected, native units are available (e.g. electric and PV displayed as kWh). The default units for water mode is kGal. In energy mode, CO2e is also an option and across all three modes, cost is an option. |
| Normalization | By default, metrics are SF normalized and can be turned off to see annual values by selecting ‘None’. If occupant counts have been entered in the Building Editor, Person Normalization is also available. Having SF or person normalization on will exclude non-building sites from metrics since those values are set within a building, thus nothing with which to normalize by. |
Baseline % Change
This is the key baseline metric highlighting if an organization or site’s most recent 12-month period has increased or decreased compared to the baseline period. The filter and options can modify the units being compared whether that’s usage, costs or carbon (for energy).
The baseline period is a user defined 12-month period to which to compare to. This can be specified in the Baseline Period Editor by clicking the underlined date range in either the Baseline % Change or the Options. Individual sites may have their own baseline period. When viewing an organization baseline, the default organization baseline period will be used and not the individual site's baseline.
Annual Comparison
The bar graphs break out the actual and baseline by source. Hovering over a bar will display the precise value for each source based on the selected units in the filter.
| Actual | Total for most recent complete 12-month period for selected source(s) reported in units and normalization selected in filter option. Most recent complete 12-month period of data across the organization or site, depending on view. At the site level, the duration can be adjusted via the scroll bar under the monthly graph. If the graph is expanded wider than 12 months, just the first 12 months will be included in the annual comparison. Multiple annual comparisons can be analyzed via Visualizations. |
| Baseline | Total for specified baseline period. |
Under the bar graphs, meter completeness of the actual period’s data will be reported. If weather normalization was selected in the Options box, that will also be noted under the graphs as well as with a “*” on whichever value was normalized.
Options
| Baseline Period | The baseline period is a user defined 12-month period to which to compare to. This can be specified in the Baseline Period Editor by clicking the underlined date range in either the Baseline % Change or the Options. Individual sites may have their own baseline period. When viewing an organization baseline, the default organization baseline period will be used and not the individual site's baseline. Below the date range is the meter completeness for the specified baseline period. |
| Weather Station | Baseline weather normalization analysis utilizes data from NOAA weather stations. Because of user preference and weather station data availability, B3 Benchmarking allows users to choose among the 10 highest quality weather stations closest to a site for analysis. Clicking the underlined text of the existing weather station opens the Weather Station Editor. |
| Weather Normalization | Weather normalization removes weather from the comparison equation so differences can be based on changes in the building systems or operations and not warmer or colder weather. By default, Weather Normalize Actual is selected. This adjusts the actual usage to account for the baseline period's weather. For example, if an organization's baseline period starts Jan 2015 and you are looking at 2020 actual usage, the actual displays how the building performed in 2020, but adjusted for 2015 weather data. The inverse of this is Weather Normalize Baseline. This method adjusts the baseline period's usage to account for the actual period's weather. Both methods are accurate and is thus an organization's preference on which period's usage they want adjusted. There is also an option for no weather normalization which doesn’t adjust the actual or baseline period’s usage. |
Organizational Level Site List
At the organization level, the sites list contains summary information about each site and can be sorted by any of the available columns by clicking on a column header. Click a column header twice to sort it in descending order. The default order will be displayed the next time you log in. By default, the sites list in the Baseline tab is sorted by % Change with lower performing sites on top.
Site Level Monthly Graph
The actual energy usage is based on the most recent 12-month period of energy readings. Meter readings are month-normalized so that evenly aligned month boundaries can be measured. By default, the most recent 12-month energy period is used, but earlier dates are easily accessible by dragging the chart’s scrollbar to a different period.
Warnings and Errors
Throughout the application, colored triangles may be displayed. These indicate warnings (yellow) and errors (red) with the data or situations where the metric is not applicable or available (gray). Hovering over the triangle will display a message indicating the issue. Resolving warnings and errors typically requires updates to either the Building Editor or Meter Editor.