Managing 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”.

Places represent physical structures, locations, or organizational branches of your organization.
To create a new Place using EnergyCAP Enterprise:

1. Navigate to the Facility Manager (Setup > Facilities),
   
   
2. Select an existing Place on the Facility Tree that will serve as a "parent" to the new Place. If you are creating a Building located at a specific Site, select/highlight the Site on the Facility Tree.
   
   
3. Open the Create Place window using one of the three methods below:
   1. Cick the New Place button (located in the top right corner of the screen).
   2. Right-click on the Parent Place and select the New…> Place option from the menu.
      
   3. Select the New…> Place option from the Facility menu.
      

1. In the Create Place window, enter the following information on the General tab:
   
   
   
   1. Unique, self-defined Code.  Typically, this corresponds to the Building Number (for Buildings). 
      ! The Code Field is limited to 16 Characters.  You may use letters (caps only), numbers, underscores (_), slashes (/), ampersands (&), or dashes (-), but not special characters such as pound (#), or asterisk (*)!
   2. Display.  Typically, this corresponds to the most familiar Place name. 
      NOTE:  The Display Field is limited to 32 Characters.
   3. Select an available Place Type from the drop-down menu, or create a new Place Type using the ‘+’ Button to the right of the drop-down menu.
   4. OPTIONAL – Enter the Address of the Place.
   5. OPTIONAL – Select a Contact from the drop-down menu, or create a new Contact using the ‘+’ Button to the right of the drop-down menu.
   6. OPTIONAL – Select a Weather Station from the drop-down menu.  Selecting a Weather Station completes the link necessary for Cost Avoidance to determine if any meters assigned to this Place are weather sensitive or not.
2. From the Building tab, enter the following information:
   
   
   
   1. OPTIONAL – Build Date.  The date the Place was built.
   2. OPTIONAL – Floor Area.  Changes in Floor Area are maintained here, along with the effective date of the change. 
      NOTE: Floor Areas are used to normalize use and cost data in the Group Manager and on reports. The floor area is also required for ENERGY STAR. The ENERGY STAR 'gross floor area' field is automatically populated from the Place Properties floor area, and if the floor area changes in EnergyCAP, the ENERGY STAR information is automatically updated accordingly.
3. OPTIONAL – From the Groups tab, select an existing Place Group  or groups to associate with the new Place.  Alternatively, you may create a Place Group in the Group Manager and assign all of the Places that you desire to include in the Place Group.
   
4. OPTIONAL – Enter pertinent information into the ENERGY STAR tab if the building will be submitted for an ENERGY STAR rating.
   
   
   
   1. Click the check box to indicate that this Place is an ENERGY STAR participant building.
   2. Select the ENERGY STAR Building Type from the drop-down menu.
   3. Enter the values for the ENERGY STAR Inputs.
5. Click the OK button to save the new Place. The created Place will now appear in the Facility tree in the location originally selected. 

If the Place needs to be relocated to a different branch/node of the Facility Tree, use the Move function to make changes to organization. 

To modify Place properties in EnergyCAP:

1. Navigate to the Facility Manager (Setup > Facilities).
   
   


2. Select the existing Place on the Facility Tree that you are modifying.
   
   


3. There are two methods to open the Place Properties window, so that you can make modifications to the properties.
   1. In the General PowerView, click on the Place Properties Code hyperlink.
      
   
   
   2. Select the Place in the Facility tree, then right-click and select the Properties option from the popup menu.
      
      
   
   
4. Make the appropriate edits to the Place Properties from the General, Building, Groups, and/or ENERGY STAR tabs.
   
   
   


5. Click the OK button to save the changes and close the Place Properties window.

NOTE: The Move function in EnergyCAP only supports the moving of a single Place at a time.  When a Place is moved, all "children" of that "parent" Place are moved at the same time (subsidiary hierarchy is maintained).

1. Navigate to the Facility Manager (Setup > Facilities).
   
   


2. Select the existing Place on the Facility tree that you are moving.
   
   


3. There are two ways to launch the Move function for Places:
   1. Select the Move button in the top right corner of the window   . OR...
   
   
   2. Right-click on the desired Place and select the Move… option from the popup menu.
      
      


4. The Browse Places window will open. 
   
   
   
   
   This window allows you to select the desired parent Place for the selected item. Select the destination Place in the Browse Places window.  Then click the OK button.


5. EnergyCAP will move the selected Place to the new location on the Facility tree and refresh the Facility tree.
   
   
   

1. Navigate to the Facility Manager (Setup > Facilities).
   
   


2. Select the Place that you desire to delete.
   
   


3. Use any of the following three methods to delete the Place.
   1. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
   2. Right-click on the selected Place, and select the Delete option on the menu.
      
      
   
   
   3. With the Place selected, select the Delete option from the Facility menu.
      
      
   
   
4. In the Confirm window, click the Yes button to delete the Place. OR click No to cancel deletion of the Place.The Facility tree will automatically refresh once the Place has been deleted.