Project Poster

Contribution to BC Housing

We assisted our client in analyzing energy consumption data against outdoor weather, and monitor usage of heating energy for 9 consecutive months in one of their buildings that they oversee. For the client, we prepared a comprehensive report that has results from the data analysis, and provided recommendations to help them better manage their building’s heat consumption for 2015. With the results that we achieved, BC Housing  ultimately can verify the LEED points are valid for their building on a yearly basis.

Context

Understanding the context in which a project occurs is fundamental to planning and implementing a strategy for completing the project.

The context of our project, the South East False Creek neighbourhood buildings managed by BC Housing was important to understand during the data analysis we completed. The localized weather patterns, energy systems and monitoring points, and even the daily usage patterns of residents of the building were all important considerations. Anomalies or trends in data could usually be understood within the context in which the project occurred – trends which would have been difficult to discern had we not first understood the various variables and pieces of context that influenced the energy and resource usage of the building on which we were conducting Measurement and Verification.

Planning

Planning is a crucial step in project management as it allows all members to have a clear goal in mind while staying on task in a timely fashion. The following illustrates the components of the planning stage:

• Define objectives

  • During the initial stages of our project, we collaboratively defined several goals. Setting these goals was an important stage in planning since it gave our team a clear image of the objectives to the project.

• Define tasks

  • Throughout the project, the responsibilities were split up among the members so that all members had an equal opportunity to contribute.

• Methods

  • As a group, we had many team meetings to make sure all members were up to date with the project. In addition, the meetings allowed us to discuss about blog posts, data analysis and results.

• Resources needed

  • The resources for this project were provided to us from our client. This step in planning is crucial since we need to make sure that all the data sets are up to date and are correctly formatted before continuing on with the project.

• Durations

  • A Gantt Chart was created to ensure that all members would finish their assigned tasks in a timely manner. This component of planning allowed our project to stay on track of time.

Implementation

In the implementation of this project we encountered some challenges.The responsibility and work of each stage of the project was allocated to each member. For instance, importing of data was finished by one member, then another member analyzed the data, and then a third member detailed the findings in a report. Work was allocated this way so that our work, be it unit convention or writing style, was internally consistent.

One challenge that we had set up for ourselves is the knowledge gap between each role. The person performing the analysis had a difficult time understanding the significance of the data. Similarly, the writer had a hard time reiterating ideas without knowing how the analyzer arrived at the findings. As a result, our group held additional meetings to remedy the information disconnect and provide a coherent final report.

During implementation, unanticipated issues often arise. It is imperative to, in any project, expect the unexpected and be prepared to adapt to a new plan.

Group Photo