Entering Weather Data Manually

The Weather Station Manager toolbar includes several shortcut buttons to initiate common actions. The function of each button is described below.

Toolbar button	Description
	Clicking the New Station button opens the Create Weather Station window to enter new weather station details.
	When you have a weather station already highlighted in the list, clicking the Edit Readings button opens readings monthly calendar window. Each daily value is stored in an editable field, and you can use the date scroll buttons to select any month/year of historical data.
	Clicking the Import Readings button opens a popup menu allowing you to choose the source for your imported data (file or web). If File is selected, EnergyCAP will display an Open window permitting you to browse to select the import file. If Web is selected, EnergyCAP will automatically download the weather data for stations for which you are subscribed.
	Clicking the Options button opens the Weather Station Options window, which allows you to determine: 1. the number of comparison years in PowerView weather charts 2. the Base Year 3. the Comparison Year
	Clicking the Check Data button opens the Check Weather Data window. Use the intuitive interface to generate a log of weather data for all weather stations within the time parameter(s) you select.
	Clicking the Auto Assign button opens the Auto Assign window. Use this option periodically to verify that all buildings with zip codes have been assigned a weather station. For more information, see Weather Station Manager: Overview & Setup.

WATCH VIDEO

This topic provides an overview of the Weather Station Manager, which provides an interface for assimilating weather data for use in EnergyCAP Enterprise. Weather Station setup information (automatic and manual) is also provided.

Weather stations are logical devices used to capture and measure atmospheric data that can be correlated against usage or demand. Weather stations are similar to meters and counters. As with meters and counters, weather stations have channels for each specific weather condition tracked. Temperature, humidity, dew point, cloud cover, and wind speed are only a few of the types of conditions that can be tracked by weather stations.

Weather data can be provided through our weather subscription service or by your organization. For more information on importing weather data, please see Importing Weather Data from Weather Subscription Service or Importing Weather Data from Other Sources.

Creating and Assigning a Weather Station Automatically

The Auto-Assign procedure can/should be performed whenever new buildings are added to the organization. The Auto-Assign feature does not affect buildings with weather stations previously assigned.

NOTES: Automated weather station processes are functional only for EnergyCAP clients using the weather subscription service.

Make certain that all Places to be updated have been assigned a valid POSTAL (ZIP) CODE in the place Address (see Place Properties, General tab) prior to performing the procedure below. No additional address information is required.

1. Navigate to Setup > Weather Stations
2. Click the Auto Assign button from the Weather Station Manager title bar.
   
   The Auto Assign... window will appear.
   
   Any ZIP codes for buildings which do not currently have a weather station assigned will appear in the list.
3. Click the Find Stations button. EnergyCAP will automatically check the online weather service database for the listed ZIP codes and populate the weather station code, city, state, and country for the listed regions. Any places with ZIP codes that do not match the database will not be linked to a weather station.
   
4. After the list is populated, click Assign to Buildings. Any stations that do not currently exist in the EnergyCAP database will be created and then assigned to buildings with that ZIP code. If multiple ZIP codes share a station, only one station will be created and all buildings with all ZIP codes that link to that station will be assigned to it.
5. After weather stations have been assigned, click Close. If desired, download associated weather station temperature data when prompted (Import Readings). All daily data dating back to 1995 will be downloaded. With multiple weather stations, this process may take an hour or more when it is first performed. Thereafter, only recent data will be appended.

Editing a Weather Station Assignment Manually

To change the weather station for a building:

1. Open the Facility Manager (Setup > Facilities).
2. Select the desired Place from the Facility Manager hierarchy.
3. Right-click and select Place Properties. The Place Properties window will open.
4. Click the General tab.
5. Click the Weather drop-down box and select an existing weather station from the drop-down list.
6. Click OK to save the changes and exit the Place Properties window.

Creating a Weather Station Manually

The first step in tracking, charting, reporting and analyzing weather data is to create a weather station. To create a Weather Station manually:

1. Navigate to Setup > Weather Stations
   
2. Click the New Station shortcut button to create a new weather station record.
   
3. Enter a Station Code and a Station Display Name.  The Station Code does not have to coincide with an established airport or city code.
4. Enter the Time Zone (This is only used to synchronize weather data and/or interval data when charting data from different time zones.).
5. In the upper right corner, select one of the three tracking options.  Most EnergyCAP users simply track mean daily temperature. Mean daily temperature is the average of  the daily high and the daily low.  A day with a high of 80 and a low of 50 has a mean of 65.  Typically, the mean temperature will be experienced between 10 and 11 am.  In other words, on a day that has an overnight low of 50 and a daytime high of 80, the mean temperature of 65 will occur around 10-11 am.

It is possible to track the mean daily temperature in degrees F or degrees C. However all data distributed via the EnergyCAP weather data subscription service is in degrees F. This includes Canadian stations.

To track temperature data on an interval other than daily (e.g. hourly) or to track weather data variables other than mean daily temperature (e.g. humidity, wet bulb temperature, wind, sunshine, precipitation, etc., create one or more data channels (see Creating Weather Data Channels).

If you have chosen Mean Daily Temperature, a Mean Daily Temperature data channel will be created for you when you click OK.

Beginning with EnergyCAP rel 5.0, you can automatically import weather data that has been provided by AccuWeather.com.

You must subscribe to this service and a low annual fee applies.Your subscription is for a set number of weather stations.If you have subscribed to the service, enter the state/province in the first data field and enter the specific city or airport in the second.The weather code identifier shown in the second field does not have to match the code you gave this station in the Code field.

Checking Weather Data for Missing Values

With many weather stations and many years of data it can be difficult to ensure that no daily data is missing.Therefore, use the Check Data shortcut button to identify:

• The first day for which weather data exists (first observation)

• Any missing days within the designated range of Check dates.

Degree Days

EnergyCAP uses mean daily temperature to calculate daily degree days. 

A degree day is a measure of relative heating and cooling energy required by buildings. It's calculated as the difference between the average daily temperature and the balance point temperature (55 degrees). When the average daily temperature is above the balance point, the result is cooling degree days; when below, the result is heating degree days.

Example 1:

Average daily temperature = 80. Balance point = 55. Cooling degree days = 25 CDD. (80-55=25)

Example 2: 

Average daily temperature = 40. Balance point = 55. Heating degree days = 15 HDD. (55-40=15)

Example 3:

Average daily temperature = 55. Balance point = 55. No degree days.

Why not use average temperature instead of degree days? The problem with average temperature is that highs and lows cancel each other out. A warm day (75 average temp) combined with a cold day (35 average temp) average 55. So do two mild days of 56 and 54. But in first case there are 20 CDD and 20 HDD while in the second there are 1 CDD and 1 HDD. Using degree days, you can see that the relative amount of energy required for the first set of days is much greater than for the second set of days. But if all you looked at was the average temperature, you would conclude that both sets of days were about the same.

The balance point temperature is the average daily outside temperature at which a building maintains a comfortable indoor temperature without heating or cooling. At this outside temperature, the indoor heat gains (due to people, lighting, equipment, etc) "balance" with heat loss through windows, walls, roof and ventilation.

Since the average daily outside temperature normally occurs at about 11 am, here’s the question: On a typical day, if the outside temperature at 11 am is 55, is the building being heated, cooled or neither? If heated, then the balance point should be set HIGHER than 55; if cooled, then the balance point should be set LOWER than 55; if neither, then a balance point setting of 55 is appropriate.

The 65-degree balance point standard was developed 75 years ago to help the gas industry predict heating loads in residences. Studies back then showed that when the average daily temperature fell below 65, residences began turning on the heat. To this day, many sources still track degree days using this standard, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Today's residences and commercial/institutional buildings are very different. Not only are walls, roofs and windows insulated much better, but also there are many more sources of internal heat gains (lights and equipment). Extensive use of degree day correlations by thousands of EnergyCAP users since 1982 has shown that a 55 or 60-degree balance point for modern buildings is almost universally more appropriate than 65.

Since residences have fewer sources of internal heat gains per square foot (occupants, lighting and equipment), you might find that 60 or even higher is a better balance point estimate, particularly in older residences that lack tight windows and high levels of insulation. In non-residential buildings, use a higher balance point (56-60+) for buildings that have low internal heat gains, high ventilation rates and poor insulation.

In EnergyCAP, it is possible to change the degree day balance point temperature:

• Use Tools > Options > Global, then click the Cost Avoidance tab to access the global settings
• The settings will be shown on the Weather Station Manager as Cooling Needed Above or Heating Needed Below.

If the balance point temperature is changed, the charts will be automatically updated the next time they are displayed.

Adjusting and Normalizing Cost and Usage Data for Weather

EnergyCAP has sophisticated weather adjustment and normalization capabilities. See Cost Avoidance.

Prerequisites for Weather Service import:

1. Import permission is required (User Properties/Permissions tab, Other Settings Application object) for the EnergyCAP user importing weather data.
2. Bill Import must also appear in the list of installed EnergyCAP modules (click Help/Piracy Protection/Info to display the System Information window). If Bill Import is NOT installed, contact EnergyCAP to update your EnergyCAP Maintenance Agreement.

Import Procedure

In EnergyCAP, just click Setup/Weather Stations. The Weather Station Manager will be displayed. Then click the Import Readings icon and select From Web. EnergyCAP will connect to the weather database, validate your user number and weather data subscription, and import all missing mean daily temperature data for all subscribed stations.

NOTES:

1. Subscription to the weather service is included in your EnergyCAP Maintenance Agreement.
2. Weather data can be automatically imported daily, weekly or monthly via a Windows scheduled task. See the Weather Task section of External Tasks in EnergyCAP for more information.
3. Most weather stations in the weather data database have daily data beginning around 1/1/1995.
4. The weather data database is updated on a daily basis, by 11:00 ET.  All data points are meteorologist-verified by AccuWeather.com. This is an advantage over capturing “raw,” albeit free, data from government sources.
5. The import process will populate all empty days beginning on the most recent populated day and forward.  The importer does not skip backwards over existing data and search for prior empty days, so if you have manually entered 2007, it will not skip backwards and populate 1995 through 2006.  If you want to capture prior data in this scenario, you should simply delete the weather station (this will delete all daily data), re-create a new empty station, and then import the data.
6. A time stamp of 11:00 am local time is assumed because the mean daily temperature is assumed to occur at 11 am.

It is also possible to import weather data using the channel data importer.   Data formats are very flexible.  Here’s an example of an Excel file format:

1. From the Weather Station Manager, select File > Import. The Open window will appear.
2. Browse to the data file and click to select it. Then click Open.. The Import Wizard window will open.
   
3. Follow the Wizard prompts to create a new import profile. Or select an existing profile previously created for that file and data type.

Column 1 (DEVICE) is the Weather Station three-letter ID. Column 2 is the DATE, in MM/dd/yyyy format. Column 3 is the TIME in HH:mm format. Column 4 is the DATA value.

Importing Weather Data using an external task

It is also possible to import weather data using the Import Task [imptsk] function from the command line. Here is an example and explanation of each element:

The usage is:

imptsk -d [dsn] -u [user] -p [pwd] -c [converter] -f [path] -x -a [path] -l [path] -s [section] -v [verbose messages] -remote -t [traceID]

Where:

• -d [dsn] is the ODBC data source name
• -u [user] is the system user id
• -p [pwd] is the system password
• -c [converter] is the name of the converter
• -f [path] is the file to be imported
• -x will delete the input file after importing the data
• -a [path] will archive the data to the path specified
• -l [path] is the log file
• -s [section] is the profile section name
• -v [message text] when used, will add additional detail to the import log file.
• -remote is the command to connect to the HTTP data provider (use in conjunction with the -d switch, which identifies the Datasource from the Catalog Server (as displayed in the EnergyCAP Login window)
• -t [traceID] is the SQL server trace to initiate during verification

EXAMPLE: "c:\Program Files\EnergyCAP Enterprise\imptsk.exe" -d retailer -u kvs -p kvs -c STANDARD:SIMPLE_TEXT -f "c:\b-test\*.csv" -l "log.txt" -s MY_CHANNEL_PROFILE_NAME

• "c:\Program Files\EnergyCAP Enterprise\imptsk.exe” – This is the file path for the importer program, imptsk.exe. It is typically located in your Energy CAP Enterprise program folder. Be sure to enclose the file path in quotation marks. IMPORTANT - You must execute the command from the EnergyCAP program folder, i.e. log onto this folder before executing the imptsk.exe file. Simply pointing to the program folder from another location may cause the imptsk.exe program to be unable to run required supporting DLL files.
• -d retailer - This is the name of the database into which you wish to import the data.
• -u kvs – This is the User ID with which you wish to import the data. The User ID is the username you use to login to EnergyCAP Enterprise. Be sure adequate permissions exist to create the records.
• -p kvs - This is the password associated with User ID you are using to import the data.
• -c STANDARD:SIMPLE_TEXT – If you follow the format for the weather data in this technical bulletin, this is the converter you will use.
• -f "c:\b-test\*.csv" – This is the file path for the .csv document which you wish to import into EnergyCAP Enterprise.
• -l "log.txt" – The Importer creates a log file that tracks the changes made to EnergyCAP Enterprise. This is the file path to the location where that file will be saved.
• -s "MY_CHANNEL_PROFILE_NAME" - This is the name for the weather profile you have created.

You can enter weather data manually:

1. Highlight the weather station in the list
2. Click Edit Readings. The data entry “calendar” for the most recent empty month will appear
3. Enter the daily mean temperature for each day.  You do not have to enter a value for each day if you do not have a complete month. The calendar assumes 11:00 am as the time the daily mean occurs.  You can change this by clicking the Advanced button.
4. When done, click OK.

NOTE: If you have created additional data channels for a station, the calendar-like data entry form will not appear.  You will see a different form that allows entry of hourly or 15-minute data observations.

 EnergyCAP’s PowerViews panel gives you four charts for each weather station.

Weather Monthly Degree Day Comparison

The two-year comparison chart allows you to compare one month over two years. The graph shows the comparison year (the later year) compared with a base year (the earlier year).  The 0% line (see the arrow) means that the weather each year was the same for any months falling on the line.  The comparison percentage is positive (above the line) when the comparison year's weather was more severe than the base (it was warmer in a summer month or colder in a winter month). The comparison percentage is negative (below the line) when the comparison year's weather was milder than the base (it was cooler in a summer month or warmer in a winter month).  

Heating months are shown in red and cooling months are shown in green.  This is helpful in understanding why a building's heating/cooling bills were more or less.

NOTE: When a month had fewer than 30 degree days, the percentage is set to zero. This is to prevent relatively insignificant weather variations from appearing to be large. For example, one year in Chicago June had 2 HDD and another year had 6 HDD. Although the second year had a 200% increase in heating degree days, it's misleading to draw any conclusions from this low number of HDD because heating systems were probably turned off.

Cumulative Degree Days

The cumulative degree day charts are designed to allow you to compare one year's weather to another quickly as they relate to building energy usage. By comparing the cumulative degree days of one year with another year, you can see which year was more severe (more degree days) as it relates to heating and cooling needs. For example, if 2005 had 4,000 cumulative HDD and 2004 had 3,000 cumulative HDD, you can conclude that the 2005 weather was 33% colder and would have required about 1/3rd more heating energy. 

NOTE: The charts in this example are shown on a July to June fiscal year basis.  The month cycle is set in Tools >Options > Global > Settings, and conforms to the organization’s reporting cycle.

Weather Station Options

Use the Options shortcut button to establish viewing options. The first option sets the number of years displayed in the Heating and Cooling Degree Days and Mean Temperature charts.

The second option sets the base and comparison years shown in the Weather Monthly Degree Day Comparison chart.

Weather Data Reports

It is possible to view and print a variety of specialized weather data reports (see Reporting >Reports > Weather Reports).  Also, because weather data is a type of channel data, Channel Reports can be used to view and print weather data.

 

The Logical Device Code or Logical Device Name filter used in Channel Reports refers to the weather station code and display name.

Weather Data Analysis Charts

All weather data, whether daily or hourly, is stored in EnergyCAP as channel data.  This means that weather data can be reported and charted the same as any interval/channel data using Analysis > Charts (see Creating a Chart for further guidance).

In this case, the chart shows one year of daily mean temperature for LAX.  It can be useful to add hourly weather data channels to electric meter interval data charts to illustrate the relationship between weather variables and a building’s electric demand and consumption.

You can create your own weather data channels if you want to track data other than mean daily temperature.  Follow the example below to create a channel to track hourly dry bulb temperature in degrees F:

1. Open the Weather Station Manager (Setup > Weather Stations).
2. Select the weather station from weather station list in the center pane of the display.
3. Right-click and select Properties. The Weather Station Properties window will open.
4. Click Channels, then to create a new channel.
5. Set Type to Manual and Rule to Trip.
6. Select the channel data type from the list of available weather variables.
7. Select the observation interval and the total/average option desired.
8. Click OK.

You will want to import channel data, rather than enter it manually, because there will be a lot of it. Follow the instructions in Importing Weather Data from Other Sources.