B3 Building Benchmarking in Minnesota

B3 BenchmarkingB3 Benchmarking

www.CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org

Sarah Steinman

Minnesota GreenCorps Energy Conservation Member

Available to assist local units of government with B3

[email protected]

B3 BenchmarkingB3 Benchmarking


• Background • Why benchmark?• Account creation• Data collection and entry• Data analysis

B3 Benchmarking: BackgroundB3 Benchmarking: Background


B3 stands for:

Buildings

Benchmarking and

Beyond


• The State of Minnesota B3 Energy Benchmarking program has been developed by the State of Minnesota Department of Administration and Department of Commerce to help State and local governments improve the energy performance of their buildings by tracking and managing facility energy consumption. mn.b3benchmarking.com

• Made in collaboration with the private design firm The Weidt Group




Current Statistics

• Number of Organizations 1,339• Number of Sites 4,879• Number of Buildings 6,435• Number of Meters 10,242• Total Square Feet 283,463,826

State2989

Public School

s1321

County561

City1564

Public Buildings in B3


Why Benchmark?Why Benchmark?

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure


Benchmarking your buildings can help answer some of the questions you may have about your energy use.

• Which of my buildings are under-performing?

• How can I compare yearly heating costs taking in account unusually high winter temperatures?

• Is our City Hall energy efficient compared to others in Minnesota?

• Are our buildings performing up to their expectations based on square footage and space usage?




Benchmarking is useful when your city, county, school district, or other entity…

…would like to find the “lowest hanging fruit” efficiency projects.

…would like to demonstrate to others the value of your energy efficiency projects.

…would like to participate in various financing projects.


Account CreationAccount Creation

The following slides briefly go over how to create a B3 account and how to utilize the features.

ACCOUNTCREATION

DATACOLLECTION

DATA ENTRY

ANALYSIS


Account CreationAccount Creation

mn.b3benchmarking.com


Account Creation: Building EditorAccount Creation: Building Editor

Also, Specify the Space Usage Type

When creating an account, it is crucial to enter the Square Footage of the building.


Account Creation: Building EditorAccount Creation: Building Editor

There are many space usage types from which to choose.

Data Collection


ACCOUNTCREATION

DATACOLLECTION

DATA ENTRY

ANALYSIS

Data CollectionData Collection



• Historic energy data will need to be collected from your utility.• 3 Years is preferable

• Local government entities can get this historic data from their utility provider.

• Data needs to include:• Start and end date of meter reading• Consumption in therms, kWh, gallons of fuel, etc• TOTAL billing amount in $• Electric demand charges if available

Data Collection


ACCOUNTCREATION

DATACOLLECTION

DATA ENTRY

ANALYSIS



Data EntryData Entry

Once historic data is in the system, monthly data entry is quick and easy. Often, the staff person that pays the utility bills is able to spend a few minutes each month entering the new data into B3



Example of where to find the relevant data on your bills for B3


ACCOUNTCREATION

DATACOLLECTION

DATA ENTRY

ANALYSIS

AnalysisAnalysis


Analysis: Summary TabYour Building’s “Dashboard”

Analysis: Summary TabYour Building’s “Dashboard”

These measures have their own tab at the top that offer more detailed information


Analysis: Summary TabAnalysis: Summary Tab

kBtu/SF/YearThis measure is a very important number to know. It is like an MPG for your car, but for your building.

This building is using 79.73 kBtu/SF/Year

Analysis: Benchmark Tab


In B3, “benchmarking” is an engineering model that predicts how much energy a site would use if it were built to today’s energy codes. The B3 ratio is a measurement of a site’s actual consumptions to its predicted benchmark.

Note that LESS than the benchmark is GOOD

89.47 (prediction)

.89 (ratio)

79.73 (actual)

Analysis: Benchmark Tab


Baseline is used to compare a site to itself using a defined time period. The baseline is weather normalized so that changes in weather do not affect the comparison.

Analysis: Reports Tab




These are all the different reporting options.

B3 Building Benchmarking in Minnesota

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