FAQ
You have questions about the competition ? The answer is certainly here !
You can also ask your question.
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administrative
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We are tenants in only one part of the building. Can we register?
When the entity that registers to the competition is a user of the building, it must occupy at least 80% of the leasable area of the building:
- either directly by its own occupation,
- or by bringing together various tenants to achieve occupancy of at least 80% of the area. In this case, the entity or primary user who participates in Cube, is able to present the consolidated consumption of all the tenants participating in the contest.
The tenants are more easily united by the owner or the user of the building (multi-tenant case): having enlisted at least 80% of the users of the building in the competition, the lessor or the user may register a building as they will be able to present the total consolidated consumption for the building (private and common areas) on a monthly basis for each of the types of energy used.
In terms of organising the competition, a single contact for the building will be necessary: lessor, or operator, or main user.
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Can an owner register with his tenants?
Of course - the registration may be performed by the lessor. The following should be checked:
- All user tenants are enlisted (acting as users in the first instance of a competition...)
- The owner is able to produce a metering, a measure or a reliable statement consolidating all of the site’s consumption (as well as historical data)
- The information included in the "candidate kit", with the resources facilitating awareness and implementation of the competition for different users, via a single point of contact on the lessor's side,
In previous editions, lessors collaborated with their users on CUBE2020 and these collaborations were successful! A "green annex" to the informal lease.
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What are the methods of registering one or more buildings?
Registration consists of:
- registering the details of the company involved via the online form.
- payment of the registration fee (850 euros before tax per building registered), payable by cheque or bank transfer to IFPEB
- by registering information concerning the buildings via the CUBE2020 candidate area, available from 7 April, 2015. These can be accessed by you with access codes.
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When is the deadline for registering for the fifth edition?
Registration will open in September 2019 through December 31st, 2019. The competition will run from January 1st, 2020 until December 30th, 2020.
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communication
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What communication and entertainment is being organised throughout the year of the competition?
Communication and entertainment are established continuously from the period of the launch to the end of the competition. This consists of at least:
- Four meetings to discuss entertainment and intermediate information relating to CUBE.
- Press releases at key moments,
- A competition website and relay websites such as www.construction21.fr
- An Opening Ceremony,
- An Award Ceremony.
- Our media partners will often relay competition news
Building representatives (those registering the buildings or looking after the company’s building stock) are invited to all candidate events. During the competition the best stories, anecdotes and the most original initiatives will be evaluated and shared among candidates by the organisers.
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What resources will be available to candidates to deploy/encourage interest in the competition in their buildings?
A CUBE2020 communication kit distributed to candidates in electronic form contains various documents:
The logos "CUBE2020 company candidates" and "buildings in competition" that may be included in the company's internal and external communication, posters, stickers, etc.
- Technical instructions
- A deployment guide
- Feedback from previous editions
The companies involved have the right to communicate their participation in the CUBE 2020 competition, both internally and externally, on the basis of materials supplied.
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technology
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Presence of process: how to manage when one of building accommodates both service and production activities. Is it eligible to participate in the competition?
"Pure" services do not exist and during the first edition we worked with many buildings where there was a certain amount of processes (laboratories, workshops, reprography services, computer rooms, sorting machines, etc.) consuming structurally, in an extreme case, up to half of the electrical power purchased. We verified in advance that:
- either the hosted activity was almost constant or slightly dependent on other factors such as climate and usage,
- or otherwise that a sub-metering allowed this consumption to be deducted.
Development of the first point: a process largely dependent on usage and climate.
If there is a lot of process and the "order backlog" has a significant impact on energy consumption, your performance in terms of competition risks being masked by an increase in activity (which is what you want!) or overly improved in the opposite case. So in the past we have therefore:
- accepted a building with a continuous stable process during the year, whose energy performance depends on the user
- rejected an administrative building annexed to biotechnology testing greenhouses, which were heated or not heated depending on the experiments, as the consumption was too erratic
Finally, we accepted a building that was absolutely determined to compete and that had a significant part of its consumption dependent on turnover. It just competed against itself and was not classified.
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Questions on sub-metering of the commercial sector: when a site comprises various buildings, some involved in services, some involved in production and some involved in research, but are connected to a single point of erdf supply, are they eligible? If so, separately or as a whole?
If the production has a major effect on consumption AND it is highly variable from year to year, it will be difficult or discouraging to contribute "overall" because the effects of production will disrupt the interpretation of results. But you cannot contribute only part of the buildings, because you cannot produce the historical records to which these selected buildings will be compared (you will only have the bill at the ERDF point as a historical record) and this is based on our baseline case.
Aside from the competition, we invite you to implement a sub-metering now!
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PRESENCE OF PROCESS: HOW TO MANAGE IT?
Recurring question: we are thinking about having our buildings participate in the next edition of Cube 2020 and we are wondering the following about their eligibility in terms of the competition: one of our buildings accommodates both service and production activities. Is it eligible to participate in the competition?
"Pure" services do not exist and during the first edition we worked with many buildings where there was a certain amount of process (laboratories, workshops, reprography services, computer rooms, sorting machines, etc.) consuming structurally, in an extreme case, up to half of the electrical power purchased. We verified in advance that
- either the hosted activity was almost constant or slightly dependent on other factors such as climate and usage,
- or otherwise that a sub-metering allowed this consumption to be deducted.
Development of the first point: a process largely dependent on usage and climate.
If there is a lot of process and the "order backlog" has a significant impact on energy consumption, your performance in terms of competition risks being masked by an increase in activity (which is what you want!) or overly improved in the opposite case. So in the past we have therefore:
- accepted a building with a continuous stable process during the year, whose energy performance depends on the user (I do not let my welding apparatus get hooked up more than necessary!),
- rejected an administrative building annexed to biotechnology testing greenhouses, which were heated or not heated depending on the experiments (consumption was too erratic),
Finally, we accepted a building that was absolutely determined to compete and that had a significant part of its consumption dependent on turnover. It just competed against itself and was not classified.
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general
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What if we do not receive a monthly bill but a bill that is less frequent?
This the case with some electricity or gas rates, depending on the contract in place. To compete, the candidate should ideally be able to produce a monthly value based on:
- The bill
- Direct reporting or remote reporting (confirmed by a subsequent bill)
- An estimate. In this case, the quarterly or half-yearly bill that arrives to confirm the actual consumption will permit the values entered for the previous month to be corrected. This will result in "movement in the rankings", following these corrections and linked to non-monthly bills
In the case of a quarterly gas bill (based on an actual meter reading and not on a fixed price or an estimate), consumption may be extracted by the CUBE2020 technical team to create a monthly rate in proportion to DJU or pro rata temporis, according to the nature of the consumption and its climatic sensitivity.
With the calculation method chosen, your score increases by combining your monthly results into a constant dividend. This makes it easier to appreciate the overall trajectory and by extrapolation…your place at the end of the year!
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What are the 2020 categories?
Some examples of categories:
- Certified in operation office buildings (HQE, BREEAM In Use, ISO 50001)
- Non-certified office buildings (potentially assigned to homogeneous sub-categories if there are too many candidates)
- Educational buildings
- State-owned buildings
- Public buildings (non-educational)
- Semi-industrial buildings
As well as some of our thematic categories:
- Most greenhouse gas reduction
- “Best improved” among a single company’s registered building stock (more than 5 buildings)
- Overseas buildings (French or otherwise)
- Most creative communication campaign
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Participation takes time?
CUBE 2020 is a non-intensive programme! It simply requires a little motivation, i.e. the commitment of key individuals. For the rest, it has been designed so as to demand as little work as possible from candidates!
Data entry: the investment in time by candidates is quite small owing to the technical quality of the project partners.
The information requested is minimal: 30 items of descriptive data per building are requested, of which 20 (address, area, workforce, assignment of areas, number of meters at the entrance, etc.) [sic]. The baseline case is a historical record of simple reportable consumption (monthly data).
The competition requires the monthly reporting of consumption, or the entry of some figures.
Deployment of the Participant Kit: it will be the responsibility of the candidate to organise the downlink communication to employees. For this, a "participant kit" consisting of printable posters, stickers, guides on energy savings and the mobilisation of employees will be available to each candidate.
Feedback and entertainment: Four meetings for sharing feedback will be scheduled for 2015.
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Recurring question about the registration of multi-building sites: can we register a site consisting of several buildings? How much does it cost to register?
It is entirely possible to include a multi-building site if all buildings are reduced to one metering point and bill which is the basis of our evaluation. We will then consider all the buildings as one, and therefore bill one registration (850 euros before tax).
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How is the cumulative saving percentage calculated?
The percentage reported corresponds to the cumulative savings of the past months divided by the average annual consumption.
Why divide by annual consumption? To "stabilise" the result, since we sometimes find variations in monthly profits of +20 to -20%, perhaps even more, from month to month, the sum of which do not make the underlying trend visible.
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What is the name of the tool that calculates the ranking?
The interpretation tool for consumption and classification was developed specifically for CUBE 2020 (it is not a commercial tool). The rules for calculating the percentage of energy savings require the energy signature and corrections of the intensity of use, if necessary (areas, workforce). The tool was developed alongside experts from CUBE 2020 company partners.
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How much time is required to find out the historical data of a building in a company that has shelved all of its data?
For a manager who has everything: 1 hour to collate the information and 30-45 minutes to collect all of the historical data before the competition starts. Then it will suffice to program a record of (monthly) consumption, which will take you 5 minutes!
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How much time is required to find out the historical data of a building in a company that has shelved all its data?
Completion time for a manager who has everything: 1 hour to collate the information and 30/45 minutes to collect all the historical data before the competition starts. Then it will suffice to programme a record of (monthly) consumption, which will take you 5 minutes!
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What is the name of the tool that calculates the ranking?
The interpretation tool for consumption and classification was developed specifically for CUBE2020 (it is not a commercial tool). The rules for calculating the percentage of energy savings require the energy signature and corrections of the intensity of use if necessary (areas, workforce). The tool was developed with the assistance of experts from companies that are partners of the CUBE2020 competition.
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How is the cumulative saving percentage calculated?
The percentage reported corresponds to the cumulative savings of the past months divided by the average annual consumption.
Why divide by annual consumption? To "stabilise" the result, since we have seen variations in monthly profits of +20 to -20%, perhaps even more, from month to month, the sum of which would not have made the underlying trend visible.
Example:
The bronze medal is for savings of 10%!
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What if we do not receive a monthly bill but a bill that is less frequent?
No monthly bills: this is the case with some electricity or gas rates, depending on the contract in place. To compete, the candidate should ideally be able to produce a monthly value based on:
- the bill,
- direct reporting or remote reporting (confirmed by a subsequent bill),
- An estimate. In this case, the quarterly or half-yearly bill that arrives to confirm the actual consumption will permit the values entered for the previous month to be corrected. This will result, and it's part of the game, in "jumps in ranking" following these corrections, linked to non-monthly bills.
In the case of a quarterly gas bill (based on an actual meter reading and not on a fixed price or an estimate), consumption may be mensualised by the CUBE2020 technical team in proportion to DJU or pro rata temporis, according to the nature of the consumption and its climatic sensitivity.
With the calculation method chosen, you build your score by by combining your monthly results into a constant dividend. This makes it easier to appreciate the overall trajectory and by extrapolation…your point of arrival at the end of the year!
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How to fill in historical consumption?
You need to provide us with 3 years of monthly consumption of the building, on each energy used (electricity, gas or district heating), at the building level (main metering).
The metering information may come from either:
- Your main utility meters
- Energy bills
- Your metering system
You don’t have 3 years history for one energy?
- Please make sure you can provide us with 1 year of clean data of monthly consumption. If the data is correct, we are able to set your reference
- If the heating data is not remotely clean (ex.: fuel index) you can run an “electricity only” contest (even if your efforts will take on all the energy, including heating, the percentage we will calculate will only take the electricity into account.)
Multi-tenant building:
- Best case: you are able to consolidate the consumption data of your tenants in one electricity and heating monthly consumption
- Frequent case: you have all of the consumption of the biggest tenants, but some minor tenants are independent and you won’t be able to collect the data (ex.: shops at office building ground floor). These may be overlooked, even if the heating is distributed to them, as the main users’ efforts will make up for these. The perimeter of metering, however, must not change during the contest.
- If submetering is well in place, you can run a fraction of the building as a candidate.
- Tenant as candidate:
- Mono tenant: easy case
- Tenants within a multi-tenant activity can run the contest (ex. in the past editions, retail shops in a commercial centre), two situations:
- Submetering allows to separate tenant consumption on all energies
- Submetering allows to run the contest on electricity (event if the effort will also take care of heating)
Whatever your choice, the perimeter of metering shall be the same during the contest (historical data, contest year)
If you didn't understand, here is an Explanatory Note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eikb2lX5xYE
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