Issues with new tenants

This discussion is intended to be about the new web application for EKM Push users at http://www.encompass.io that has been beta released. Use this discussion to talk about your experiences with Encompass, including what works, what doesn't, and what could be added or improved.
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bandtank
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:43 am

Issues with new tenants

Post by bandtank »

The encompass reports do not have an ability to reset or mask information from prior billing periods. This is a problem when new tenants move into a space and get a report showing information from past tenants, which may be sensitive in nature. My business depends on absolute privacy especially as it deals with government contracts, so I can't use the report feature as-is.

In addition, there is no way to move the meters to another installation, which would require a reset of the total/lifetime usage. I moved a water meter from an existing facility to a brand new facility; how would I go about changing the total usage in that case? Has this use case been considered and, if so, what is the solution? I emailed support a while ago to ask about something similar and I was told it wasn't possible, but I'm not sure if the use case was completely understood. For reference, my utility provider has provisions for something like this by request.
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: Issues with new tenants

Post by Jameson »

Hello bandtank,

Yes, you are right that the encompass reports are not customizable in the way that you are wanting them. They work with our real-time API data and summary API data. We do not have a way to exclude data from previous tenants in the API data.

But if you want to create a report from a given time to another time, I would either use the APIs directly (https://documents.ekmmetering.com/api-docs/?shell) or I would use the encompass csv reports and extract the data you need.

Our Omnimeter Pulse v.4 and v.5 meters have a Total kWh register (which cannot be reset) and a separate Resettable kWh register (which can be reset via the EKM Dash software: https://help.ekmmetering.com/support/so ... omnimeters). Neither of these meters have a Resettable Pulse Count register. If you use the EKM Dash software, it does have a "Trip Odometer", which "resets" the Pulse Count register within the Dash software (not on the meter itself).

I hope this helps you.
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
bandtank
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:43 am

Re: Issues with new tenants

Post by bandtank »

These seem like functional oversights to me, but I gather from the tone of your post that addressing any of the issues I raised is not in the cards. None of this is the end of the world, but it's a pretty trivial thing to address and not being able to handle tenants with more finesse is not a good look. Needing to code around such a thing is also not really a viable solution.
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: Issues with new tenants

Post by Jameson »

On the contrary, I do think you bring up some good points that we had not considered. We had not thought to be able to block old meter data from reports (usually customers want to compare the latest months data to the previous months data). Encompass is a resource constrained development effort, and as such, we need to develop it to fit the needs of the most amount of customers. We like your idea and will add it to our development roadmap, not sure when we will get to it at this rate though.

For the first month after switching tenants I would go with creating your own report from the API. After that you should be able to create a report for the new tenant using encompass. At this point the only fingerprints in the report that will be from the previous tenant will be the calendar heatmap of the previous tenants daily usage (no data values just colored days) and the Total kWh value from the Omnimeter (how many kWh the meter has measured since it was installed).

I hope this helps.
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
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