1) When I open the eCalculator tool, I am always prompted with an Excel pop-up window which asks if I want to enable macros, and that macros can harm my computer.  Why is this and what should I do?

The pop-up is there because some computer viruses are written in macros; Excel's security features are only looking after the best interests of the user with this prompt.  In this case, you should click to enable the macros.  If you disable them, some features of the calculator will not work and could cause some problems.  The macros in the eCalculator do not contain viruses and will not cause harm to your system. 
If you have been working with macros disabled, and some features do not appear to be working, save your work, close the eCalculator and re-open it with macros enabled.  This should help the user-friendly features of this tool to function properly. 

If you would like to see a list of the macros to know if they could be the source of your problems, select Tools>Macro>Macros from the menu bar or press Alt+F8. 

2) Is there a user's guide to the eCalculator?

Yes!  When you downloaded the calculator from the CA-CP website, there was a separate link to download the user guide.  If you did not access it when you downloaded the calculator, you can find it by clicking on the "1.2 -Calculator" menu now.

 

3) My school does not have historical records which go back to 1990.  What should I do?

Unfortunately some schools may not have found it in their interest to maintain historical records of previous energy use data.  If gaps exist in your data, you should include what you can and reference the first complete energy year for your institution's baseline.  You may want to contact your professor/faculty advisor to determine how best to estimate previous emissions for which no records exist.  In any event, be sure to document data gaps in your inventory write-up to highlight the need for more successful record keeping in years to come.

 

4)  My school does not have data recorded for some of the data input fields in the calculator.  Will this effect the emissions calculations?

Yes and no.  The tool calculates emissions based on the data you enter into it, so you will only be calculating emissions based on the data you are able to enter.  In particular, some smaller colleges and universities may not have many of the energy features the calculator is capable of working with.  In the end, the more you are able to enter for your institution, the more complete your inventory will be.

 

5)  What is meant by "Research Dollars" in the budget section?    

"Research Dollars" is simply the amount of money your institution receives in research grants from external sources.  It is a convenient measure to use in showing your school's emissions, especially when institutions have operating budgets highly dependent on research grants. 

6)  In the "Physical Size" section of the input worksheet, what is meant by, "Total Building Space" and "Total Research Space"? 

Typically campus planners/development officers will keep records of square foot space which may include many details you would not normally consider in assessing building space, such as wall, stair and window space.  We recommend using gross square foot data here.  Your institution may also own facilities off campus which it maintains.  In general, you should include data for as many institutional facilities as possible.  However, if your institution is renting out building space, include this gross square footage only if your institution is paying the utility bills.  FYI, building space is meant to be tracked on the basis of fiscal years.

 

7)  Is electricity use tracked on a calendar year basis, or fiscal year basis? 

Your campus energy office may keep this data on a month to month basis, or over the period of a fiscal year.  Use the fiscal year period for this data. 

8)  My institution does not keep track of air travel.  How important is it that I include this data?

GHG emissions from air travel are a very significant source for all institutions, although it may not be an area of emissions easily influenced by greenhouse gas reduction efforts.  While this part of the inventory is probably going to be most useful when your institution adopts a policy of keeping air travel records, you are most likely to get a good estimate of air travel by conducting a survey from a representative body of population from your institution or contacting your schools primary travel agents.  You can also track down a lot of information by asking to see receipts from the respective accountants.

9)  In the ‘Offsets' section of the inputs, how do I calculate the carbon sequestered by forest preservation? 

The IPCC has a list of coefficients for calculating carbon sequestration at www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/land_use/007.htm.  From there, you can calculate the amount of C sequestered by various ecosystem types in the different climatic regions in North America.  Because it is a fairly common practice to purchase lands in tropical climates (outside of the U.S.) where C sequestration is high, it is important to know what type of land is acquired.  You can continue to use the same source of land year after year, as the forest preservation figures represent annual C storage.  Caution: the units used by the IPCC here are short tons, so be sure to convert to tonnes, (a.k.a. metric tons).

 

10)  A refrigerant my school uses are listed in the calculator.  Where can I find the appropriate GWP value? 

Some of the most common values can be found on the IPCC website at http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/123.htm and if you do not see your specific refrigerant in that list, then a good Google should do the trick.

 

11)   I can't find the unit conversions I need in the "EF_Constants" worksheet of the calculator.  Where can I find an accurate conversion factor for entering data in the units the calculator is set up to handle?

Most chemistry and physics textbooks have tables of common conversion factors.  A very easy to use online resource for converting units can be found at http://www.onlineconversion.com.  If you can't find the units you are looking for there, it's probably best you first try to understand what the units mean before tracking down your professor/advisor to ask them for help.

 

12)  How do I change the graphing features to show the new data that has been entered?

Actually, the graphing features should automatically show the new data.  What happens is, as you change the input data, the result data automatically renews itself, and so do the graphs.  If this is not the case, then check to see if you changed the source data used by the pre-configured excel charts.  If you changed the source data for the charts, or edited their format in certain ways, you will need to reformat the source data by right clicking over the graph and re-referencing the data from which each graph originates.