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Check a complete building energy boundary

About 11 minutes · 3 reading + 8 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A fictional building-energy brief with source/unit checks, whole-year site energy, floor-area intensity, fair comparison limits, anomaly questions and an evidence-based monitoring proposal.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • Save audited annual energy inventory and excluded-meter list; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.
  • Save fuel-specific conversion ledger and site total; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.
  • Save site EUI with boundary/period/no score label; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.
  • Save bounded building comparison and needed peer data; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.
  • Save source/site scenario comparison with factor limitations; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.
  • Save building energy inventory/conversion/EUI/source/comparison brief; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The final packet uses the supplied task-specific constraints and all six records agree.
  • Every result can be traced to an identifier, input, calculation or stated decision rule.
  • Changed-case practice updates dependent records and keeps holds or uncertainty visible.
  • The packet states the learner role, authority boundary and specific next verification needed before real work.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original fictional workplace practice; paper or a local document is sufficient. The rules and records below are supplied for this exercise, not asserted universal workplace policy. Fictional Aspen A20,000 ft²gross floor area. Four quarterly totals cover 12 months:Q1 electric 50,000 kWh /gas 2,000 therm; Q245,000/1,000; Q360,000/800; Q445,000/2,200. One exact duplicate Q2 row also appears. Other meters outside A excluded.

The idea

An energy benchmark requires matching period, building boundary, units and floor area; duplications or gaps can make a neat number misleading.

Follow along

Check a complete building energy boundary — worked practice

An energy benchmark requires matching period, building boundary, units and floor area; duplications or gaps can make a neat number misleading.

Fictional Aspen A20,000 ft²gross floor area. Four quarterly totals cover 12 months:Q1 electric 50,000 kWh /gas 2,000 therm; Q245,000/1,000; Q360,000/800; Q445,000/2,200. One exact duplicate Q2 row also appears. Other meters outside A excluded. Use paper or a local document. Preserve the original case and make a separate changed-case record.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Define A,12-month period and gross floor area boundary.

    You should see: A only,20,000 ft², all four quarters.

    Keep the stated identifier, unit and policy alongside this result so another reader can check it.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Identify duplicate Q2 without discarding a legitimate quarter.

    You should see: Five input rows represent four unique quarters.

    Keep the stated identifier, unit and policy alongside this result so another reader can check it.

  3. 3. Step 3

    Add unique source quantities by unit.

    You should see: Electric 200,000 kWh ; gas 6,000 therm.

    Keep the stated identifier, unit and policy alongside this result so another reader can check it.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Save audited annual energy inventory and excluded-meter list.

    You should see: Do not add unlike units or outside building energy.

    Keep the stated identifier, unit and policy alongside this result so another reader can check it.

Now change one thing

Q4 gas record is unknown rather than 2,200. How many quarters lack complete gas evidence?

Your work

What to finish

Save audited annual energy inventory and excluded-meter list; include the original-case decision evidence and a separate changed-case result.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Combining raw unlike units or removing a missing quarter to claim a complete annual inventory.

How can I tell I understand it?

Using the supplied identifiers, I can save audited annual energy inventory and excluded-meter list. My changed-case record names the revised condition and explains which dependent decision it changes.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Aspen A electric quarters total what kWh ?
2Can Aspen Aadd 200,000 kWh and 6,000 therm as206,000 energy units?
3What would Aspen A missing Q4 gas mean?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
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Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Tools, templates, and lesson sources

Tools and templates

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

What is Energy Use Intensity (EUI)? | ENERGY STAR
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Public agency or educational context; no source exercises are copied and no simulated threshold is presented as an official rule. Page title and relevant content inspected; no interactive controls or credential process tested.

Access: Readable official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01.

Reuse: All teaching cases, data, worked steps and questions are original. Link and limited paraphrase for context; no copied source exercises.

The Difference Between Source and Site Energy | ENERGY STAR
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Public agency or educational context; no source exercises are copied and no simulated threshold is presented as an official rule. Page title and relevant content inspected; no interactive controls or credential process tested.

Access: Readable official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01.

Reuse: All teaching cases, data, worked steps and questions are original. Link and limited paraphrase for context; no copied source exercises.

11-3013.00 - Facilities Managers
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Occupational task and responsibility context; the exercise policies and quantities are original fictional inputs. Page title and relevant content inspected; no interactive controls or credential process tested.

Access: Readable official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01.

Reuse: All teaching cases, data, worked steps and questions are original. Link and limited paraphrase for context; no copied source exercises.

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