The Standard For BAS Trending Data Collection And Compilation

Quickly and accurately bridging the gap between raw trend logs
and the analysis tools that consume trending data

Version 4 Released 5/1/2012

What Is 'The Gap' Being Bridged?

The trending data saved in building automation system (BAS) trend logs are used to determine whether HVAC equipment is functioning as intended, and to evaluate opportunities for energy conservation and cost savings. Trend logs are often the basis upon which new equipment installations are certified. Unfortunately, neither the data format nor the file architecture of trend logs are yet standardized across control vendors.

Before trend data becomes useful for operational evaluation and control as well as fault detection and diagnostics (FDD), the trend date, time and point value must be extracted from each trend recording, regardless of data format or file architecture, and normalized in a spreadsheet to a date and time scale. The normalization process may require correction of data anomalies as well as the application of various smoothing and change of value techniques.

The lack of standardization in recording trend logs makes the collection and compilation of accurate trending data spreadsheets a time consuming, yet necessary challenge requiring costly engineering skills. Therein lies 'the gap' ... the manual extraction, normalization, correction and compilation of BAS trending data. This manual gap in otherwise computerized and intelligent trending processes is:

• Exceptionally slow,
• Labor intensive,
• A drain on expensive engineering talent, and
• Is guaranteed to introduce errors into the trending data.

Trend Importer bridges this technology gap in the processing of trending data
by offering a quick, cost effective, accurate and easy to use application that
replaces and standardizes manual collection and compilation methods

Collect Trending Data From Any Source

• Vertical files (trend logs recorded one after the other in one file)
• Delimited text files
• Fixed column width text files
• SQL databases
• MySQL databases
• Access databases (both .mdb and .accdb)
• dBase files
• Johnson Controls dBase files

Build Custom Matrices From Any Collected Trending Data Regardless Of Source

• Set the matrix beginning and ending dates and times which do not have to agree with the start/stop dates and times in the collected trend logs
• Set the sampling interval which does not have to be the same as the intervals in the collected trend data
• Add and arrange trending data columns in any quantity and sequence with any column name
• Apply "Change Of Value" and "Smoothing" techniques to selected columns

Export Custom Matrices To One, Two Or All Available Analysis Tools

• As spreadsheet files ready to open in Excel
• In formatted files ready to upload to PACRAT
• As UTF files ready to drag and drop into Universal Translator (much faster than importing with Universal Translator)

Simple To Use
No special training is needed to use Trend Importer. If a person understands Windows Explorer, they are well on their way to understanding how to use Trend Importer.

Saves Expensive Engineering Time
Using Trend Importer, trend logs can be collected and prepared for input to available trend analysis tools in minutes instead of hours. The saved overhead either flows straight to the bottom line and/or contributes to more competitive contract bids.

More Accurate Analysis And FDD
With Trend Importer, exported trend matrices are free of the errors inherent in the process of manually building spreadsheets from raw trending data. Any analysis based on a matrix created with Trend Importer can be relied upon to be accurate. In addition, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) processes are cleaner with fewer, if any, faults that are triggered by inaccurately compiled trending data.

Adaptable To Future Needs
As new raw trend log sources are identified in the field, Trend Importer is designed such that new collection technology can be easily incorporated into future versions. Likewise on the export side, adapting Trend Importer to provide immediately consumable trend data products to new analysis tools can be accomplished quickly.

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Copyright (c) George 'B' Gilbert 2000-2012