EnergyIQ for Action-oriented Benchmarking: Final Report

This report documents results from the third phase of developing the EnergyIQ Action- oriented benchmarking tool. EnergyIQ has been very well received in the California marketplace, and beyond. The tool now has almost 1,300 registered users, who have collectively entered 900 buildings representing 130 million square feet of floor area. The EnergyIQ website had been visited more than 46,000 times (a four-fold increase since the close of Phase II) by over 25,000 individuals, viewing more than 150,000 pages of information (Figure 4). While California was the dominant source of traffic, visitors were also from the United States and 134 countries. Technical accomplishments during this phase of work include: 1. Expanded functionality and user interface improvements: EnergyIQ now allows for new and more customized benchmarking techniques and more flexible peer group definitions. The underlying methods and robustness of the benchmarking process is also improved. 2. Improved infrastructure: The entire system has been ported to the Amazon cloud, resulting in higher reliability and lower hosting costs. 3. Licensed technology: The Application Program Interface (APIs) enabling third-party software developers to incorporate the EnergyIQ methods in derivative user interfaces have been improved. 4. Enhanced documentation: Improvements have been made to technical and tutorial documentation for users of the EnergyIQ user interface as well as for the API. Highly effective and successful software and API services have been created and a large user base established. At least one other California Energy Commission research project—the Small and Medium Building Toolkit (PIR-12-031) —also relies on EnergyIQ.