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We do have a way to add cost for non-energy items in OptiMiser
however currently, the individual line items do not show up in the Improvement Table of the report. (Currently the cost will be correctly added to the total row of the improvement table however the individual line item will not show up.)The following instructions explain how you will be able to add non-energy items with costs to the report after we get the next update (version number should greater than 4.0.20384) out to you:In Wizard mode, click on the Wizard tab and select the Improvement Packages node (2nd node from the bottom) on the outline tree on the left of the interface. Next click the blue link that says, “Custom: Edit descriptions of improvements, add additional items, edit column headers for incentives, and select columns for the custom table”. In the top right of the interface, there are a set of buttons for “Columns:” and a set of buttons for “Rows:”. Click on the Row button that says “Added” and this will expose a number of blank rows you can edit the description and cost for.
In Tabbed mode, go the the Improvements Tab, Custom Subtab. In the top right of the interface, there are a set of buttons for “Columns:” and a set of buttons for “Rows:”. Click on the Row button that says “Added” and this will expose a number of blank rows you can edit the description and cost for.
Editing Descriptions
The description you enter in the left most column (“Improvements”) is the text that will appear in the Improvement Table in the report.At this point there are no more than 2 issue rows per additional report page. You could fit 4 separate issues on a single additional report page by grouping issues into categories and listing them together on a single issue row. Say you have 5 issues, A-E, but B and C are related and D and E are related. On the first page, you would have the improvement table followed by a summary paragraph followed by the first issue row where issue A would be found with pictures and a description. Instead of having the remaining 4 issues take up two additional pages, you could fit them all into one additional page by having the first issue title address both issue B and C, with a pictures for issue B and C in the first issue row of the additional page with two short separate descriptions (you can separate the issue descriptions with a hard return) in the first issue rows issue description. Then the second issue row of the first additional report page would have an issue title addressing issue D and E with pictures and descriptions for both issue D and E (again, with the issue description separated with a hard return if necessary). Of coarse, this workaround to get 4 issues on one additional report page is dependent on the length of each issues description and whether the descriptions of the two issues can be integrated into one consolidated issue description.
Other than what I just described, the actual spacing of the rows and content on the additional pages is locked down and un-editable.There are two answers to this question based on whether you are using the OptiMiser generic PDF report or VEIC’s custom report.
1. OptiMiser Generic Report
The best way to describe a scenario like this is through the Report Notes field found at the bottom of the Basement interface. This field can be used to describe, in text, what the existing and improved conditions are if the data on the generic report page is unclear. Keep in mind these Report Notes fields DO have a length limit for what will fit on the page, so double check your report to make sure all notes text is visible in the final product.2. VEIC Custom Report
To change the text that shows up in the table on the report page, you will have to create new items in the cost database. To do this, click the “>” button found directly to the right of the insulation controls. After clicking, an Add/Edit Item popup will appear. In this popup, you can select any row and click “Create New from selection…”. This will generate a new line item at the bottom of the list where you can edit the Item name to describe the situation succinctly. This process can be done for both Base and Improved insulation selections. For example, you could have a Base insulation item that says, “1/2 wall bare, 1/2 wall R-13” and an Improved insulation item that says, “R-13 added to bare wall, existing insul left as is”. (NOTE: In the new line items you create, the only thing that matters is the item description – energy properties are irrelevant because you have entered the assembly effective R value from the workbook attached to this post. This means that when you select your new descriptive line item in the insulation control, the depth control should be set to 0.) In addition to making brief descriptions in the table, do not forget you can use the summary and issue rows for the Basement pages to help describe the situation you are improving. Another option would be to make the item description say, “See paragraph below”.In either case, if you follow the directions in the BasementPartialWallImprovement.xls workbook and enter the effective R value, the model will be correct even though the report may sometimes have difficulty describing these more complex situations without a little additional work from you.
Right now the existing conditions text field is limited to what fits on the existing conditions page. I am going to be adding a feature that tells you the character limit for that text field so you will know in advance if it will fit in the available space. One option you could try now would be to take the text that is cut off and paste it at the top of the Pie Graph/Chart Summary Text field with a hard return (atl+enter) or two between the added text and whatever text you already have on that page. That will make the text that is cut off show up on the next page of the report. The space on the pie chart page is limited too, so you may or may not run into the same problem depending on the amount of text you have spilling over.
