Calibration Procedure

[Les Lazareck]

I’ve watched the calibration video a few times. I have never calibrated a file to align the heating and cooling bars whether or not I override any items. I have always been entering all envelope, system and appliance details.

After entering a complete set of utility data (e.g. gas and electric) and selecting Analyze, if I receive a message that heating or cooling data does not produce good results, should I skip overriding any items and enter more details?

[Gamaliel Lodge]

The utility analysis overrides should only be used in the following circumstances:

1. The utility analysis doesn’t pass BPI criteria, but statistical fit measures are within 20% and the results are in a normal range.   In this case you can override the BPI rejection and select Yes.
   
2. The utility analysis passes BPI criteria, but OpitiMiser rejects the analysis because either the BLC/Eff or Base Temperature represent a home that would be very unusual.  In this case you should only override the rejection, if the accompanying description on the Analysis Details and Overrides popup matches your knowledge of the home (e.g. exceptionally efficient envelope/systems or very low thermostat setting).
3. The utility anslysis passes BPI, but OptiMiser detects unusual results.  In this case OptiMiser has conditionally accepted the anlaysis and you can force a rejection by selecting No.  You should do this if the accompanying description is contrary to your knowledge of the home.

If you any of these cases if your final decision is to accept the analysis, you should be on the lookout for unusual savings results.  If you see results that don’t make sense, then you should try rejecting the analysis and see if the results look better.

If the analysis message indicates that the bills did not provide a good signal, then you will not be able to override the acceptance of the results.   A majority of your bills should pass the BPI criteria, provided that you enter actual bill dates and properly mark estimated bills or known vacation months.  If this is not the case, please send us a selection of files that fail, along with any bill documentation that you have available.

[Carlos Espinoza]

When not using the Audit wizard:

If, say cooling, or heating for that matter, does not provide a good signal per the bills provided, but does exist in the home (meaning the home uses a/c or a furnace), should the auditor proceed to hand calibrate the model (adjusting the cooling capacity, t-stat set point, etc.)  to closely match the utilities (as shown in the post audit calibration window located in the analysis sub-tab)?

If said cooling (or heating) does not provide a good signal, and does not exist in the home, should the auditor, again, hand calibrate the model to closely match the utilities.

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