2021-09-23 05:21:53
What is it?
Energy Star Portfolio Manager is an interactive online resource management tool. It allows you to upload information about a project and compare the project’s energy performance against industry benchmarks and Energy Star standards. It also gives guidance on how to improve the project’s energy efficiency. Finally, it documents everything and can be used to seek Energy Star certification for the project. The website is hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Why do I care?
Increasingly, Energy Star is being referenced by juridsictions all over North America as a standard for hitting energy-efficiency targets. Projects and products usually don’t have to be Energy Star-certified, but if they are they meet or exceed the laws and regulations. The brand is familiar to most people in the industry and even the general public, so there is some benefit to having the label attached to your project.
How do I use it?
The tool is free online to anyone who creates a user account at energystar.gov. There’s a data worksheet that helps you collect the information you’ll need. Some data uploads can be automated.
This is an American website but I’m in Canada. Is this relevant?
As explained in the article above, Natural Resources Canada and the EPA have been cooperating to harmonize the ways they measure and record energy efficiency data and to include Canadian information in the Portfolio Manager. There are additional hoops to jump through to achieve Canadian Energy Start certification for a project, but using the Portfolio Manager to document it gets you most of the way there.
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