The gate runs first
Before a single rule runs, Energy Agent checks the supplied data and decides which analyses it can support. Anything that fails is reported, not silently worked around. A rule that cannot be trusted on your data is not run.
- Timezone: is the file in local time, and does it line up with weather and the schedule?
- Coverage: how long is the record? Under 60 days is flagged; 365 days is the target.
- Cadence: are the intervals consistent, or does the file switch between 15-minute and hourly?
- Gaps: any missing stretch longer than one and a half intervals; more than a day missing in total is flagged.
- Duplicates: repeated timestamps from a double export or a daylight-saving fold.
- Negative or blank values, and runs of zeros longer than six hours (meter offline).
- Flatlines longer than a day (stuck sensor or frozen history).
- Scale: a channel whose magnitude changes by a decimal place mid-file (unit mix-up).
- Alignment: submeters, weather and schedule sharing the same period as the main meter.
- Plausibility: outdoor temperature within a sane range for the location.
How much data each analysis needs
Rules of thumb from the product’s own gate. Send what you have; the gate says what is missing.
- Whole-building meter rules: 7 to 30 days each; 60 days for confidence.
- Occupancy inference: hourly-or-finer data.
- Weather-normalised baseline (TOWT, Guideline 14 grade): 21 days with weather.
- Change-point detection: 42 days.
- Verified savings around a change (IPMVP Option C): 60 baseline days plus 14 after.
- Baseload drift and 12-month forecast: 6 months.
- Year-over-year comparison: two full calendar years.
- Equipment rules from BAS trends: 7 to 30 days at 5- to 15-minute intervals.
What you do not need to do
Do not clean, resample, fill gaps or convert units before sending. Do not merge files by hand. Do not remove weekends or holidays. Every one of those steps destroys evidence the rules use. Send the raw export and the gate does the rest.
Common questions
Our data has a two-week gap when the meter was replaced.
Send it. The gap is flagged and the rules run on the periods either side.
The BAS export is at one-minute resolution and huge.
Send it as is or ask the export tool for 5- or 15-minute rollups. Either is read.
Written by Pelorus Engineering · Brent Waluzak, P.E. (FL)Last updated