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	<title>Stormy Weather Gallery &#187; Desktop</title>
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		<title>How to thoroughly uninstall/remove Weather Channel Desktop from your PC?</title>
		<link>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-thoroughly-uninstallremove-weather-channel-desktop-from-your-pc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-thoroughly-uninstallremove-weather-channel-desktop-from-your-pc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrpetesurfs</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weather Systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Channel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desktop]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[thoroughly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uninstall/remove]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-thoroughly-uninstallremove-weather-channel-desktop-from-your-pc/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How to thoroughly uninstall/remove Weather Channel Desktop from your PC? Do you want to completely uninstall Weather Channel Desktop from the computer but encountering kinds of uninstall problems? If this is the case for you then you may be at the right place here. The uninstall steps below are what I performed to completely uninstall [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>How to thoroughly uninstall/remove Weather Channel Desktop from your PC?</strong></p>
<p>Do you want to completely uninstall Weather Channel Desktop from the computer but encountering kinds of uninstall problems? If this is the case for you then you may be at the right place here. The uninstall steps below are what I performed to completely <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);" href="http://www.uninstallhelper.com">uninstall Weather Channel Desktop</a> from my old computer.</p>
<p>But, please bear in mind to first back up your Windows registry and perform the below steps carefully.</p>
<p>Step one:Go to Start-&gt; Control Panel-&gt; and then Add/Remove Programs-&gt; Here, please locate Weather Channel Desktop in the programs list and then click &#8220;Change/Remove&#8221; button to begin the uninstall process -&gt; follow the on-screen steps to finish the removal.</p>
<p>Step two:Navigate your mouse to Start, Run, type &#8220;regedit&#8221; and press Enter to open Windows registry editor. Here, please expand the registry list to locate and then delete the associated Weather Channel Desktop registry entries from the two branches.</p>
<p>HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software <br /> HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINESOFTWARE</p>
<p>After a reboot of the computer, Weather Channel Desktop will be completely uninstalled form your computer.</p>
<p>However, for those who are not professional on the computers, it is not recommended to uninstall Weather Channel Desktop manually when its built-in uninstaller does not work. Most of the time, a minor mistake will sometimes result in a complete system corruption. At this time, <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);" href="http://www.uninstallhelper.com">a professional uninstaller </a>is necessary for you to thoroughly uninstall Weather Channel Desktop and all unwanted programs. Uninstallers are designed for PC users to thoroughly scan and remove programs both from hard drivers but also Windows registry.</p>
<p>Are you in need to uninstall Weather Channel Desktop and other unneeded programs easily? If so, please go to <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);" href="http://www.uninstallhelper.com">Uninstall Helper</a> for visual and step-by-step uninstall tutorials. Here, you will get solutions to quickly deal with the wanted programs on your computer.</p>
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		<title>How To Uninstall And Remove Weather Channel Desktop?</title>
		<link>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-uninstall-and-remove-weather-channel-desktop/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-uninstall-and-remove-weather-channel-desktop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:57:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrpetesurfs</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weather Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Channel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desktop]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Uninstall]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-uninstall-and-remove-weather-channel-desktop/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How To Uninstall And Remove Weather Channel Desktop? Are you in a need to completely uninstall and remove Weather Channel Desktop but you really having no idea how to do it? If so, you are not alone. Most of the time, when you try to uninstall and remove Weather Channel Desktop in the add/remove programs [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>How To Uninstall And Remove Weather Channel Desktop?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Are you in a need to completely uninstall and remove Weather Channel Desktop but you really having no idea how to do it? If so, you are not alone. </strong></p>
<p>Most of the time, when you try to uninstall and <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.uninstallhelp.com/" title="a fantastic removal tool">remove Weather Channel Desktop</a> in the add/remove programs list entering from the Control Panel, you may not find it there. So it does not permit you to delete it. Even though you have uninstalled it, it still may start up automatically when you log on. Then you have to disable it from task manager each time you log on. Does it sound frustrating? This is because the registry entries and the Weather Channel Desktop related files respectively remain hidden in the nooks and corners of your registry and hard drives.</p>
<p><strong>Then I&#8217;ve setup a step-by-step Weather Channel Desktop &#xA0;removal plan for you so you can conduct the removal as soon as </strong><strong>possible</strong><strong>.</strong></p>
<p>However, whether you want to remove this program, note that this will result in no protection for your PC. Then be very carefully when browsing the internet.</p>
<p><strong>Method 1 Uninstall and remove Weather Channel Desktop manually</strong></p>
<p>1. Locate and remove Weather Channel Desktop by deleting the related files, a trained software professional would better do this job.</p>
<p>2. Eliminate the registry entries if you can.</p>
<p>3. Delete connected directions.</p>
<p>By doing a quick search via the Internet, you can find out what files and registry entries need to be deleted. But this removal is only recommended for computer experts, for deleting the wrong file or registry key may render Windows unbootable.</p>
<p><strong>Method 2 Uninstall and remove Weather Channel Desktop automatically</strong></p>
<p>There is a much simpler and safer way to conduct this removal, and what you need is a security tool removal tool. This tool can uninstall the program firstly, and then it scans your registry and your hard drives to find and delete all the files that related to the program, easily and effectively.</p>
<p>There is actually a fantastic removal tool that can help you<a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.uninstallhelp.com/" title="a fantastic removal tool"> remove Weather Channel Desktop</a> completely with great success and make sureall the now-defunct Registry entries and related files are eliminated automatically with a few clicks.</p>
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		<title>Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 &#8211; How To Completely Remove Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer Safely &amp; Easily</title>
		<link>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-how-to-completely-remove-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer-safely-easily/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-how-to-completely-remove-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer-safely-easily/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:07:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrpetesurfs</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weather Software]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Completely]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Easily]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[From]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-how-to-completely-remove-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer-safely-easily/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 &#8211; How To Completely Remove Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer Safely &#038; Easily Do you want to Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6? For most people uninstalling programs and software can be a confusing process, first of all finding where the actual ability to do it in Windows is, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 &#8211; How To Completely Remove Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer Safely &#038; Easily</strong></p>
<p>Do you want to <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.squidoo.com/uninstall_software">Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6</a>? For most people uninstalling programs and software can be a confusing process, first of all finding where the actual ability to do it in Windows is, and even then it doesn&#8217;t remove the software completely leading to problems such as freezing, or system errors, or maybe your computer crashing as you uninstall a corrupted program manually. If this sounds familar then I might have found a solution to completely remove programs and software from Windows.</p>
<p><strong>What To Choose To Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6</strong></p>
<p>Many users uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from Windows using the standard Windows uninstaller, but there are many who would not recommend this as it is likely to not be able to completely uninstall everything that was placed on your computer when you installed.</p>
<p><strong>Some Features of A Good Uninstaller</strong></p>
<p>If you want to successfully uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from Windows, you may want to choose an uninstaller that is seems tailor made for this exact process. You need to choose one which is offers a better and easier way to completely uninstall any unwanted application that say, standard Windows Add/Remove program, can&#8217;t remove. A good Uninstaller will probably do the following as well:</p>
<p>&#x2022; clear registry entries and drivers that the applications left over<br />&#x2022; show detailed information of a certain application installed in your computer<br />&#x2022; can completely remove many applications that are difficult to uninstall such as <br />&#x2022; deal with broken registry keys<br />&#x2022; can protect your PC from corrupted registry errors<br />&#x2022; improve your PC performance and speed</p>
<p><strong>Recommended As A Perfect Uninstaller</strong></p>
<p>A few months ago I came across the <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.squidoo.com/uninstall_software">Perfect Uninstaller Free Download</a> as it came recommended from friends, it&#8217;s so simply to use once installed, simply open the program and it will list all installed programs and software, then you click on one and select uninstall. That&#8217;s it, Perfect Uninstaller will make sure every trace of the program is gone, my computer has been running faster then ever since using it, it&#8217;s crazy how much difference a proper uninstaller makes.</p>
<p><strong>Warning</strong></p>
<p>Beware of the many free virus cleaners offered all over the Internet, free for every user, yet which may prove to be a hindrance more than a help. This is not the case with all free offers. Not at all. Some will work like a charm.</p>
<p>The secret to your success is to choose the tool which will not only help but be successful in removing selected worm infections AND disinfect your computer. Unfortunately, some free virus and worm removal tools simply are not 100% reliable and you may have to restore your system from backup.</p>
<p>Why don&#8217;t you take a look at the best way to <strong>uninstall </strong><strong>Weather Channel Desktop 6</strong> from Windows? Visit: <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.squidoo.com/uninstall_software">Perfect Uninstaller</a></p>
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<p>More <a href="http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/category/weather-software/">Weather Software Articles</a></p>
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		<title>How To Easily Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer?</title>
		<link>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-easily-uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-easily-uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:45:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrpetesurfs</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weather Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Channel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desktop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Easily]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[From]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/how-to-easily-uninstall-weather-channel-desktop-6-from-your-computer/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How To Easily Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer? How to easily uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from the computer is always a headache for lots of PC users when it expired or there is something wrong with the current version. Don&#8217;t worry! With the instructions here, you can completely uninstall Weather Channel [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>How To Easily Uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 From Your Computer?</strong></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.pchelpdiy.com">How to easily uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6</a> from the computer is always a headache for lots of PC users when it expired or there is something wrong with the current version. Don&#8217;t worry! With the instructions here, you can completely uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from your computer.</p>
<p><strong>First, how to manually uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6?</strong></p>
<p>1) Click <strong>Start</strong> Menu.</p>
<p>2) Go to<strong> Add/Remove Programs</strong> within <strong>Control Panel</strong>.</p>
<p>3) Highlight Weather Channel Desktop 6 and then click <strong>Remove</strong> to begin the removal.</p>
<p>Note: Sometimes, there will be some related folders or registry items left behind after uninstalling Weather Channel Desktop 6 with the above manual method. So it is necessary for you to take the below action to ensure a complete uninstallation:</p>
<p>1. Check whether there is a folder or associated folder named C:\Program Files\ Weather Channel Desktop 6. If so, drectly delete it from your computer.</p>
<p>2. Go to Start, run, type &#8220;Regedit&#8221; in the search box, and then press &#8220;Enter&#8221; to access Registry Editor. Here, please check whether where there are the two items. If there are, directly remove them from your computer:</p>
<p>HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/ Weather Channel Desktop 6 or</p>
<p>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ Weather Channel Desktop 6</p>
<p>But it is not recommended to manually uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from the computer for it always combines so well with the computer. If it is incompletely or incorrectly uninstalled from the computer, serious problem like system crashes will happen. So I highly recommend that you can uninstall it with some professional uninstallers like <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.pchelpdiy.com">Perfect Uninstaller</a>. With this program in hand, you can easily uninstall kinds of unwanted programs easily with the tips below:</p>
<p><strong>Second, how to automatically uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6?</strong></p>
<p>1) Run Perfect Uninstaller.</p>
<p>2) Highlight Weather Channel Desktop 6 on its main interface.</p>
<p>3) Then click &#8220;Uninstall&#8221; button and then &#8220;Next&#8221; to begin the removal.</p>
<p>By following the uninstallation wizard, you can easily uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from the computer. You may wonder if I can not find the program in the display list, how can I uninstall it from my computer? Do worry, with the &#8220;Force Uninstall&#8221; function within Perfect Uninstaller, you can easily get the job finished: locate whether the program locates on your hard drive such as C:\Program Files\ Weather Channel Desktop 6, and then right click the folder to select &#8220;Force Uninstall&#8221;. This option allows you to forcibly uninstall programs from your computer. Is it useful?</p>
<p>So are you feeling troublesome to easily uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 right now? Simply go to<a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.pchelpdiy.com"> PC Help DIY</a> site, then you can get the easiest way to thoroughly uninstall Weather Channel Desktop 6 from your computer.</p>
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<p>More <a href="http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/category/weather-software/">Weather Programs Articles</a></p>
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		<title>The Guide to Choosing the Best Desktop Utility Bill Tracking Software for Your Facility</title>
		<link>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/the-guide-to-choosing-the-best-desktop-utility-bill-tracking-software-for-your-facility/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stormyweathergallery.com/the-guide-to-choosing-the-best-desktop-utility-bill-tracking-software-for-your-facility/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:24:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrpetesurfs</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weather Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Choosing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Desktop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Utility]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The Guide to Choosing the Best Desktop Utility Bill Tracking Software for Your Facility ABSTRACTToday&#8217;s utility bill tracking software can deliver excellent results for energy managers who want to gain a comprehensive understanding of utility usage and costs in their facilities. All of the major commercially available utility bill tracking software programs are good at [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>The Guide to Choosing the Best Desktop Utility Bill Tracking Software for Your Facility</strong></p>
<p>ABSTRACT<br />Today&#8217;s utility bill tracking software can deliver excellent results for energy managers who want to gain a comprehensive understanding of utility usage and costs in their facilities. All of the major commercially available utility bill tracking software programs are good at what they do, however, they are distinctly different in functionality and capacity.</p>
<p>Savvy energy managers have discovered &#8211; sometimes the hard way &#8211; the importance of selecting the appropriate software package to meet their needs. Before reviewing software packages, it is best to understand the needs of your organization and the resources available. Then you can compare each program&#8217;s capabilities (such as budgeting and forecasting, temperature correction, rate analysis, report generation, etc.) against your needs. </p>
<p>Making the wrong choice can result in wasted time and hours of frustration, or worse &#8211; dissatisfied clients or management. </p>
<p>This paper will help you to identify what tasks you want to accomplish with your utility bill tracking software.</p>
<p>WHY NOT JUST USE SPREADSHEETS?<br />If you are tracking energy usage and costs for a handful of meters, a spreadsheet may be adequate; however, if you are tracking for a large organization with many facilities, or tracking savings from energy efficiency measures, then commercial energy accounting software may be the best and easiest way to track your utilities.</p>
<p>INTRODUCTION TO UTILITY BILL TRACKING SOFTWARE<br />All the major utility bill tracking software packages are good at what they do. However, they are all different and have different capabilities. Although you can track your utility bills effectively in any of the software packages, depending upon what your specific needs are, there is likely a program that is more suited to your needs than the others. Choosing the correct software package the first time can save you hours of work, and help you avoid the frustration of discovering too late that it does not produce what you wanted.</p>
<p>NARROWING DOWN THE SCOPE OF OUR ANALYSIS<br />In order to narrow down the scope of this presentation, we have made two rough classifications, which are detailed below. This paper covers desktop (not web-based) utility bill (not interval data) software programs.</p>
<p>Web vs. Desktop Applications<br />Using the web to track your energy usage is useful for large organizations. Large companies dispersed around the globe can enter their utility usage, and see reports comparing the usage in Lubbock to the usage in London. Central energy managers can then easily allocate energy costs across the enterprise and locate high usage facilities and concentrate efforts there. However, enterprise web applications are usually relatively expensive and often offer only basic analysis functionality. There are a great number of web applications available, most of which focus on interval (e.g. 15-minute) data. </p>
<p>There are also some internet bill tracking services that are relatively inexpensive. These applications will present your data to you on the web in a number of ways, but at present appear to be limited in analytical capacity and functionality. For example, these web services typically will not weather normalize utility data, which results in faulty year over year comparisons of utility bills.&#xA0; These web services are not addressed in this paper.</p>
<p>There are only a handful of utility bill software programs in the desktop market. Desktop applications usually offer more sophisticated analysis than their web brethren, and usually at a much-reduced price compared to web software. Many desktop packages offer some interface to the internet, such as downloading bill, interval or weather data, and creating html reports.</p>
<p>Interval Data vs. Utility Bills<br />Although there is considerable value to be found in analysis of interval data, there do not appear to be enough interval data experts to go around. Some organizations have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for interval data enterprise software, only to have it go unused, often due to lack of trained and available staff that can gain meaningful information from it.</p>
<p>Interval data can be used for several purposes, some of which are listed below: </p>
<p>-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Determining when equipment is turned on and off<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Discovering and diagnosing equipment and controls problems, <br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Load shedding, <br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Aggregating energy usage across an enterprise into load profiles which can be used when procuring energy supply contracts, <br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Applying rates to the interval data to get a better understanding of the hourly cost of running the facility.</p>
<p>Viewing utility bills in monthly (or billing) increments is a simpler discipline which is more comprehensible to management, more familiar to energy professionals, and more commonly practiced. Plenty of useful information about a facility can be gleaned from utility bills, some of which are listed below:</p>
<p>-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Determining whether the facility is saving energy and utility costs<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Identifying the most wasteful facilities<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Identifying controls and equipment problems<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Budgeting and Forecasting<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Understanding where utility costs are going<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Performing rate analysis<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Verifying that the utilities are billing correctly<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Identifying changes in facility usage patterns</p>
<p>As the topic of this paper is Utility Bill Tracking, we will not cover interval data analysis here, however it is important to note that some desktop packages can handle both your utility bill and interval data, and can reconcile your utility bills with interval data.</p>
<p>SOFTWARE SELECTION CRITERIA<br />Perhaps the best method of determining the software program for your specific needs and budget is to clarify what you would want to use the software to accomplish. Below we have listed some of the tasks that utility bill tracking software can help you perform.</p>
<p>There is a comprehensive questionnaire at the end of this paper which will help optimize your software criteria.</p>
<p>-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Are you more interested in utility accounting or energy analysis and saving energy?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to identify the most inefficient facilities?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to measure energy savings from your energy conservation projects or from performance contracts?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to streamline your utility bill payment system?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to create an incentive system to encourage employees to save energy?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to verify that your utility bills are correct?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to allocate costs from master meters to submeters and subsidiary accounts?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to identify anomalous changes in utility usage?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to understand the relationship between production at your factory (or occupancy at your hotel, etc.) and utility usage?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to create budgets and track your utility costs against the budgeted costs?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to evaluate different rate structures on your utility data to find the best rate?</p>
<p>Once you have determined your specific needs and budget, you can identify which software features are necessary accomplish these tasks. This section lists features and selection criteria with which you can sift through the software programs to find the one best suited to your needs.</p>
<p>Capacity: How Large A Project Will You Be Working With?<br />The software packages currently available represent a wide range of capacity &#8211; from a low end of several hundred meters to a high end of nearly unlimited accounts. If you are putting together a utility bill tracking project with thousands of meters, then the smaller software packages may not be applicable. Some of the desktop packages have SQL databases that can handle virtually an unlimited number of accounts. Some energy managers get around the database size limitations of the smaller desktop packages by keeping several databases, each corresponding to a different section of the organization. If you are responsible for hundreds or thousands of meters, you might find that it is not necessary to track all of your meters. Tracking fire protection and street lighting meters may not result in any analytic value at all.</p>
<p>Energy Accounting Method: Year to Year Comparison vs. Temperature Correction<br />There are different ways to view your utility data. You can compare your usage from year to year to see if you are using more or less energy, or you can correct your energy usage for weather data, or other factors, such as occupancy or production. </p>
<p>If you compare utility usage from year to year, you can quantify the change in usage and costs. However, you cannot tell if the change is due to fluctuations in weather, changes in rate, changes to the facility itself (such as new additions, new equipment, or extra shifts), or due to reduction or increase in energy usage (which is what you are trying to determine). Energy analysts often prefer to normalize their data to weather, so that they remove these factors, and get a truer picture as to whether the facility is using more or less energy than it used to. Without weather normalization, they may not be able to tell if their project is truly saving energy, or instead, if the change in weather from year to year is responsible for changes in utility usage.&#xA0; This same type of normalization can be done with other factors as well, such as production, occupancy or calendar. &#xA0;</p>
<p>Be aware as well, not all weather normalization is the same.&#xA0; Some software packages will have extensive normalization capacity, which allows energy analysts to extract the maximum from their utility bills, whereas other programs offer very little in reporting or analysis along this line, treating normalization as an afterthought.</p>
<p>Ease of Use <br />Most of the programs are relatively simple for such tasks as data entry and report generation. These simple tasks can usually be performed by clerical workers. However, the more complex tasks are best executed by energy professionals. These more complex tasks (such as weather correction, budgeting and forecasting, creating custom reports, modeling rates, etc.) are associated with concepts (such as demand, ratchets, weather regression, and prorating) that may require some technical knowledge and analytical skills. Untrained staff may be able to run the more complex software routines but may be unable to assess the reasonableness of the approach or results. </p>
<p>Knowing that the more complex tasks may be more difficult to learn, it is probably best to judge general ease of use on the simple tasks, such as laying out your site and account information, entering bill data, and producing reports. The more complex functions, such as modeling rates, weather normalization, or budgeting and forecasting, by their very nature, will be more difficult in all programs.&#xA0; Some people are intimidated by these features in the more sophisticated programs thinking that they are just too difficult.&#xA0; Remember, you can grow into these advanced features in time, just as most of us did with MS Excel.&#xA0; In fact, it is probably a wise long-term decision to purchase software that has some features you don&#8217;t yet understand, as then you have reason and tools with which to grow, and increase your skills.</p>
<p>Before buying the software, it would be best to take a &#8220;test drive&#8221; and see how intuitive the user interface is.</p>
<p>General Orientation:&#xA0; Energy vs. Accounting<br />Some software packages are more oriented towards accounting than analysis.&#xA0; Accounting programs will stress things such as entering all charges in the bill (which sometimes can be more than 6 different line items per bill), interfacing with accounting systems, aggregating data for payment, and creating bills for your tenants.&#xA0; Analysis programs will stress weather normalization, allow you to identify and cast out anomalous bills from your analysis, provide graphs displaying the relationship between weather (or production, etc.) and usage, and generally are mostly concerned only with usage, demand and total cost, but not all the little charges on the utility bill that make up the total cost.&#xA0; If your background is accounting, and not energy, then you will likely be more comfortable with an accounting-oriented program, rather than an analysis oriented program.&#xA0; If your background is energy, you will likely be more comfortable with an energy analysis-oriented program.</p>
<p>Interfacing With Your Accounting System<br />Some software packages can interface with Accounts Payable for bill payment. Typically utility bills for a utility vender are aggregated and then can be exported for Accounts Payable.&#xA0;&#xA0; Some packages will create an export in any format you choose to accommodate existing accounting procedures.</p>
<p>Importing and Exporting Data<br />All software packages offer import and export of data. Usually you will have to properly format your data before importing it. Some packages will allow you to import data from the text format in which you receive it from the utility. This custom import format is usually created by the software provider or a consultant.</p>
<p>Baseline Modifications<br />Buildings occasionally change their usage patterns. These changes can lessen the usefulness of annual comparisons of usage and costs. For example, if you were trying to track savings on a building for which you had installed energy efficient lighting, and if the building subsequently adds a new computer lab (or a new addition, or a third shift) your building usage may increase. If you were trying to determine whether the building was saving energy from your lighting retrofit, you would no longer be able to separate out the reduction in usage from the lighting from the increase in usage from the new computer lab. Some software packages will allow you to make &#8220;modifications&#8221; to the baseline to account for the new computer lab (or new addition, third shift, etc.), which then allows you to determine what savings, if any, are attributable to the lighting retrofit.</p>
<p>Rate Analysis<br />There are four main reasons analysts may want to include rate analysis in their utility bill tracking project:</p>
<p>-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;To assure that costs are correctly applied to changes in usage and demand. Since using blended rates can introduce large errors, modeling rates is the most accurate method of assigning costs to usage and demand. <br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;To verify that the utility is costing bills correctly. <br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;To assign some agreed upon cost to utility usage and demand, such as is sometimes done in performance contracting, or<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;To determine which rates are best suited for your accounts.</p>
<p>To analyze rates, the utility rate must be entered into the program. This can be done by the analyst himself, a consultant, or oftentimes by the software provider. Many utility rates have become very difficult even for energy professionals to decipher. If you are planning on performing rate analysis in your organization, you might want to have a plan for who is going to enter the rate into your software, as this sometimes can become time consuming.</p>
<p>Not all desktop software packages can model utility rates, and of those that can, some may be limited in how detailed a rate can be modeled. If you want to investigate rate issues, then determine if your own rate schedules involve provisions such as demand ratchets, fuel surcharges, time of use periods, load factor tiers,&#xA0; etc. and then see if the softwares you are looking at can handle these provisions.</p>
<p>Allocating Costs to Submeters<br />Some analysts use their utility bill accounting software to allocate costs from master meters to submeters or subsidiary accounts. For example, a mall that charges each different tenant for their energy usage could use the software to allocate costs and usages based upon submeter readings (or other criteria such as square feet), and then create bills for the different departments. </p>
<p>Reporting<br />Once you know what tasks you intend to accomplish with your utility bill tracking system, you should have a fairly clear idea of the type of reports that will be required to fulfill these tasks. However, the quality of reports, and the ease of creating reports varies from program to program. In addition, in most programs the reports are in crystal reports, or some other canned format in which the data and the reports are not easy to modify.&#xA0; Countless users of one package used to create reports, then export them to Excel, then manipulate the reports to get them just so.</p>
<p>Emissions<br />Reporting on emissions (CO2, CO, NOx, etc.) being released into the atmosphere is becoming more popular. While most energy managers think it terms of usage and dollars, management may be also interested in reporting CO2 reductions to shareholders or the media.</p>
<p>Software Cost<br />The utility bill tracking programs currently available are priced from about ,000 to about ,000. </p>
<p>In addition, you might want to consider the cost to set up your database, which is usually extra. If you are busy, then the easiest and perhaps best method of starting your utility tracking database is to have an expert set it up for you. That way you can learn the program little by little as you enter data and make reports, while still having time to do the rest of your job.</p>
<p>Services<br />Consider your vendor as well.&#xA0; There are different types of vendors.&#xA0; What is their overall orientation?&#xA0; Is your vendor grounded in energy efficiency or energy accounting, or is your vendor primarily involved in just selling software?&#xA0; The vendors associated with energy efficiency are the ones who will stress analyzing your bills, finding problems, and saving energy.&#xA0; Some of these vendors will teach you how to analyze your usage, how to spot problems, and what actions to take to correct them.&#xA0; Those vendors grounded in accounting will focus on integrating with accounting systems, and will have little help or advice when it comes to energy management decisions.</p>
<p>Some software vendors will sell you software, perhaps bundled with some services, and you will never hear from them again.&#xA0; Some vendors on the other hand will go the extra step to make sure that your utility bill tracking project is a success.</p>
<p>OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER<br />Some factors to take into account when selecting a utility bill tracking package have nothing to do with the software itself, but rather with your own organization or the software provider.</p>
<p>Staff Capability and Availability<br />How sophisticated is your staff? How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking? Having the best utility bill accounting tool in the world is not helpful if your staff does not have the knowledge or time to get the most out of it. Be realistic about your staff and who will actually be using the software. Software training by itself may not be enough. Understanding how to run the software, but not having a good grounding in energy could lead to underutilization of the package.</p>
<p>In addition, it is very important to consider beforehand who will be doing what functions with the software. For example, clerical workers could input data and produce reports. Analysis and other heavy lifting might best be done by energy professionals. Do not expect your clerical staff to do more than they are capable of, or your bill tracking experience could end in failure.</p>
<p>Support and Ongoing Costs<br />Be sure to consider the availability and quality of technical support, and the associated costs. You might want to contact technical support with questions before purchasing the software, so as to get an idea of the quality of the support you will be getting. Most of the software packages come with the first year of support for free, and an additional annual fee thereafter.</p>
<p>Software Selection Questionnaire<br />If you answer these questions before you investigate different software packages, you are more likely to end with the software that is best suited to your organization.&#xA0;&#xA0; Don&#8217;t be swayed by sales people and bells and whistles.&#xA0; Get the right software for your organization. </p>
<p>General<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How many meters will you be tracking?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;What is your budget?</p>
<p>Analysis<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to identify the most inefficient facilities?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to measure energy savings from your energy conservation projects or from performance contracts?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to compare year to year bills or use weather normalization?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to identify changes in utility usage patterns and spot outlier bills?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to understand the relationship between production at your factory (or occupancy at your hotel, etc.) and utility usage?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to have the ability to modify your year to year comparisons for changes in usage patterns such as new equipment or building additions?</p>
<p>Accounting<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to streamline your utility bill payment system?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to allocate costs from master meters to submeters and subsidiary accounts?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to create budgets and track your utility costs against the budgeted costs?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need it to interface with your accounting system?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to enter in every charge associated with your bill?</p>
<p>Data Manipulation<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How are you going to get data into the system?&#xA0; Importing monthly data files or hand entering?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How fast can you manually enter data into the program?</p>
<p>Rates<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to verify that your utility bills are correct?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you need to evaluate different rate structures on your utility data to find the best rate?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to apply the current rate to before and after comparisons of utility costs?</p>
<p>Reports<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;What type of reports do you want the software to generate? &#xA0;<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;What are you going to do with reports when you get them?&#xA0; Print them? Email them?&#xA0; Modify them on your computer?&#xA0; Save them?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you have special reporting needs?&#xA0; Will the software allow customized reports?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you want to report on Emissions? (CO2, CO, NOx, etc.)</p>
<p>Staff<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How sophisticated is your staff?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How much time can they devote to utility bill tracking?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Do you have trained staff to use software?</p>
<p>Services<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Are you going to want to create your own bill tracking database, or are you going to have it done?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;How is technical support?<br />-&#xA0;&#xA0; &#xA0;Will the vendor be available to partner with you, </p>
<p>Also, be aware that most likely none of the packages available will have all of the features you want, or all of the features you want at a price your organization is willing to pay. In this case, you are going to have to prioritize the features in the questionnaire, and from there pick the software that handles the most important tasks your organization requires.</p>
<p>CONCLUSION<br />All of the major desktop utility bill tracking programs can be used to successfully track utility usage and costs. However each of the major desktop utility bill tracking software programs has useful features especially designed to fit certain situations. To ensure that your utility bill tracking project is successful, it may be best to understand exactly what you need to accomplish and who will be doing the work. Once you are clear on your objectives and personnel, you can select the program that best suits your needs and budget.</p>
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