Overview: Places

Places are an organizational tool for structuring the Facility tree in EnergyCAP. 

Places represent the physical structures or locations of an organization, to which meters and counters are assigned.  Places can also represent the branches of an organization, or the departments within a company, to which buildings, meters, and counters are assigned.  There is no limit to the number of Places that may be assigned to an organization.

! The Facility tree typically represents the physical realities of the organization and NOT the vendor/accounting processes. EnergyCAP provides a separate accounting Tree View for these purposes!

All logical devices (meters and counters) are dependent on places.  Therefore, it is important to logically organize Place information.  Considerations include:

• the desired level/detail of tracking to be performed
• user preferences for monitoring energy data (see below)
• naming conventions for the various Place Types and Places
• number and names for Place Types required by the organizational hierarchy
• existing organizational standards for data tracking

If it is not necessary to track energy usage down to the “room” level; the lowest organizational level of the Facility tree is typically the “building” level. EnergyCAP uses the whole building methodology for Measurement & Verification. However, EnergyCAP provides additional place types such as "room" and "floor". Additional place types can be created by the user.

The organizational structure of an organization can be changed at any time in EnergyCAP, but a well thought-out organization scheme will provide greater ease in data entry, and greater consistency and confidence in understanding and interpreting historical energy data in years to come.

EnergyCAP PowerViews (see graphic below) are displayed from the Facility tree; these charts and graphs will dynamically "roll up" the use and cost data to display only the information relevant for the currently-selected Place and/or meter.  For example, if a “building” is selected from the Facility tree, the use and cost data in the PowerViews will all be based on commodity expense and consumption associated with the meters assigned to the selected “building”.  Alternatively, if a “site” on the Facility tree that has multiple “buildings” within it is selected, the use and cost data in the PowerViews for the “site” will be the sum of use and cost for ALL meters assigned to “buildings” within the “site”.