Glossary

Sector

A Sector is a categorization for an Organization. There are currently four sectors, all public, in B3 Benchmarking:

• State
• City
• County
• Public Schools

Each Organization in B3 Benchmarking belongs to one and only one Sector. We may add additional sectors in the future.

Organization

An Organization in B3 Benchmarking is a public entity that has one or more public Sites. Sites may belong to one and only one Organization.

Site

A Site is a collection of Buildings and Meters. B3 Benchmarks are created at the Site level. A Site in B3 is most often a single physical location or campus.

Building

A Building in B3 Benchmarking is a physical structure that is greater than 5,000 square feet and has more than one fuel source (Meter).

Space Usage

Buildings in B3 are described using Space Usages. A Building may have more than one Space Usage (e.g. 50% Community Center and 50% Office). Each Space Usage contains data about the occupancy, percent heated, and percent cooled, that can be modified by the user. It is important to enter accurate Space Usage data. The better the data entered, the more accurate the Benchmark.

Meter

A Meter in B3 Benchmarking is a physical meter on Site, usually used for billing. Current Meter types are:

• Electric
• Natural Gas
• Chilled Water
• Steam/Hot Water
• Propane
• Fuel Oil

Each Meter has a collection of Readings. Users must specify a Utility for each meter to enable carbon calculations. We will add new Meter types in the near future, including on-site renewable fuel sources.

Reading

A reading is a measurement of consumption and dollars for a period of time. Most Readings will be information entered from a utility bill.

In order to avoid gaps, the Start Date of each Meter Reading should be the same as the End Date of the previous reading.

Readings do not have to be entered in chronological order. You can enter a new Reading for any time period, and resort the Readings chronologically.

Benchmark

B3 Benchmarking automatically creates an energy Benchmark for each Site in an Organization. The Benchmark is a prediction of the Site’s consumption based on an engineering model of the Buildings, constructed as if each Building were built to the current Minnesota Energy Code.

Actual consumption of the Site will vary from the Benchmark. If the variance is large, you should check all your Building data.

The Benchmark is designed to be a good screening tool to identify Sites that need attention. Sites that use more energy than the Benchmark are good candidates for an energy audit.

Baseline

The Baseline in B3 Benchmarking is used to compare an Organization or Site’s current consumption to a Baseline Year. The Data Owner for an Organization selects a Baseline Year, and the B3 Reporting section displays the current consumption compared to the weather-normalized Baseline Year.

Weather Normalization removes the variable of weather in the comparison, so you know that a reduction in consumption is due to operation or changes in the building systems, not the weather.

Currency

B3 Benchmarking allows the user to see consumption in three different formats, or “currencies:”

• Energy
• Dollars
• Carbon Emissions

Each of these views is valuable in its own way.

Data Owner

A Data Owner is an individual with a B3 Account that is responsible for an Organization’s data.