Preparing the account to use DEXMA Detect

• Requirements to start using DETECT
  • Indispensable information
  • Additional information
• Detect's configuration process
• Basic configuration steps
  
  • Data insertion
  • Locations creation
  • Link devices to locations
• Additional configuration steps
  • Use of tags
  • Supplies and prices configuration
  • Currencies, surface and temperature configuration
• Detect's configuration process

 

Requirements to start using DETECT

Indispensable information

In order to start using DETECT you need, at least, the following information:

• Electricity monthly consumption for, as a lower limit, 12 months. 18 months of data would be the optimal to squeeze Detect’s value, but monthly frequencies can allow you to use the product on a basic version.
  Note 1: If a building has a consumption lower than 1500kWh or 0kWh for 12 months of data, it will be discarded since Detect will not be able to simulate energy savings.

  Note 2: If a building has a lot of days without data ( More than 50 % of days during 12 months) it will be discarded since Detect will not be able to provide proper results.
  
  

• Information required about the buildings under study:
  • Their zip code (their whole address would be preferable but not indispensable)
    

    Note :  A wrong address that does not have correct/configured coordinates will discard the building.

  • Area. If it is not provided, Detect will estimate it using an AI model that has been trained with DEXMA’s database
    

    Note 1:  Configured surfaces might be considered wrong and estimated if they are below 10m2 or the surface/median monthly consumption rate is above 200 kWh/m2.

    Note 2: Detect AI model  used to impute surfaces might not be able to estimate  areas  in those cases that the input data has low quality.

  • Activity (needed to compare this building with similar buildings). i.e: Hospital, office, restaurant, supermarket etc
  • Supplies and Prices for electricity and gas (recommended but not indispensable). This way, the energy costs will be calculated using your own tariff structures. Otherwise, we offer 3 possibilities:
    • A price per default for each country defined by DEXMA will be taken into account for the simulations of economical savings. These prices will be updated twice a year by DEXMA using official sources for both electricity and gas. 
    • A price per default for all the accounts that could be defined by the customer
    • A specific price per default for each account  that could be defined by the customer
  • Carbon emissions factor (kgCO2/kWh) to validate the environmental impact of your actions we offer 2 possibilities:
    • A factor per default for each country defined by DEXMA will be taken into account for the simulations of carbon emissions. These factors will be updated twice a year by DEXMA using an official source.
      

      The following table shows the  electrical  & gas prices together with the carbon emissions factor that are used by default per country in DEXMA. [Last update in July 2022]:

• • • A factor per default for each account that could be defined by the customer.

 

Additional information

Including more than the basic information in your account, might unlock more functionalities and recommendations. Here is what you could add:

• Reference temperatures used in that building for degree days calculation (recommended but not indispensable), take a look at this article about how to configure them.  If these temperatures are not configured Detect will use some predefined ones:
  • Summer Tª= Between 18-26ºC
  • Winter Tª= Between 12 and 19ºC (Italy between 11 and 20ºC) 
• Tags: You can add more information to your buildings to later filter the results offered by Detect.Take a look at this article and learn how you can navigate through your portfolio in an easy and organized way.

 

Detect's configuration process

The complete configuration flow you should follow in order to start using Detect, can be seen in the following scheme:

 

* Compulsory steps, considered as Basic configuration steps.

 

All the steps that have a rectangle can be done directly in the platform or in-bulk. All the steps that have a rhombus, should be performed directly in the platform's UI. In the following sections, you will be directed to other articles to help you follow each step.

If the language included in the graph is unfamiliar to you, don't hesitate to visit our platform's glossary. If you still would like to learn more, don't hesitate to ask the team for the on-boarding emails.

 

Basic configuration steps

In this section, you are going to learn how to include the basic information into the platform. This is the information required to use Detect. Please make sure you already have an account created on the platform (if not, contact the team).

This section is divided into:

• Data insertion
• Locations creation
• Link devices to locations

 

Data insertion

There are multiple ways for you to insert the monthly electrical consumption into the platform. Please check the article explaining how to import data into the platform. Among the options described in the article, it is recommended to use excel import or FTP import.

Once the data has been introduced into the platform, you should accept the devices that have been created.

 

Locations creation

The way to organise the information in the platform is through the creation of locations. When creating them, you will be able to include all the needed information described in the previous section.

To create each location individually, please follow these steps. To create them in-bulk, please follow these steps. Please set the area only if it is known. Otherwise, set the area to 1 m2, so Detect can estimate it.

 

Note. If you have lots of buildings, you might be interested in organising them, i.e. not only creating the locations but also other entities to better organise them. For example, you could organise all your buildings geographically or by business model. This organisation is called the locations' hierarchy tree and can be created individually or in-bulk, by following the same steps as for the locations' creation.

 

 

Link devices to locations

Please follow this step in order to link your devices with your locations. The step should be performed in the locations' section of the UI or could be performed in-bulk.

**It is very important that you assign a device to your main consumption in the Reference meters section so we can gather your data and use it in Detect calculations**

 

Additional configuration steps

Use of tags

You could include more information about your buildings to later filter the results provided by Detect. Also to complement the basic information provided in the Basic steps. You could, for instance, include tags for:

• The schedule of your buildings: Compare those buildings that are open during weekends vs. those that are not.
• Available area for solar panels: Determine the maximum area that could be used in the building to install solar panels.
• Year of construction: Filter your portfolio based on that information
• Timezone: Focus your efforts on similar buildings 
• Any other information you might find relevant to define the type of buildings you wish to include. As an example for a hotel:
  • Number of rooms
  • Is there a restaurant?
  • Is there a spa?
  • Is there a gym? ...

Please note that part of this information will only help to benchmark the buildings between them once the results have been provided.

 

So, how to include this information? Tags* are configured when creating the locations, both when creating the locations individually or during the in-bulk configuration process.

* There is a maximum of 50 tags per building.

 

Supplies and prices configuration

In case you would like to include energy costs in the platform, you could do it directly in the platform or by using the in-bulk configuration. If you don't have this information, Detect will use a price by default. There are two approaches that could be recommended in order to configure prices: 

1. Configure a tariff structure for each building individually: This will allow you to calculate with a higher level of detail the energy costs and possible savings of each building.
2. Configure some tariff structures and use them as templates for all the buildings: This would save you time while configuring the account but would still increase the exactitude of the calculations (vs. using the by-default price). In Spain, an example of templates would be to create: One tariff 2.0, one tariff 3.0A, one tariff 3.1A and one tariff 6.X.

For both options, you should read our articles explaining how supplies and prices are organised on the platform.

 

Currencies, surface and temperature configuration

Regarding currencies configured in each location, if you have an account composed of buildings in different countries with different currencies, Detect portfolio screen will show the most common currency and for each building will show the configured currency.

Regarding temperature (ºC, ºK)  and surface units (m2, sftq), Detect will use the ones configured per deployment.

 

Detect's configuration process

In addition to walking you through the configuration of your account, our customer success team will use our internal validation tools and iterate with you until all the configuration is complete so you can begin using Detect right away.  Take a look at the following flow that represents the whole funnel of configuration for the customer: