Abstract: A system and method for providing pre-approval of rental units enables a user to select multiple properties for which to apply for pre-approval. The system generates separate screening requests for each selected property based on personal information provided by the user and approval requirements specific to each selected property. The user is screened for each property in accordance with the approval requirements for that corresponding property. A unique identifier for the user is maintained and tracked so that a single credit or background check on the user is performed and results from those checks are used for multiple screening requests for different properties. The screening results are provided to the user along with an approval code for those properties for which the user is approved. A property can utilize the approval code to validate that the user is already approved for that property.

Abstract: A method and device for performing a sampling methodology for measuring power consumption for a population of power-consuming devices. The device includes a processor configured to perform the method. The method includes determining an energy consumption level for each device in a population of power-consuming devices; clustering the population of power-consuming devices into a plurality of clusters such that each of the plurality of clusters has a similar overall energy consumption; determining an estimated total energy consumption for each cluster; determining an estimated total energy consumed by the population of devices based upon the total energy consumption for each cluster, wherein the estimated total energy consumed by the population is within an acceptable uncertainty; and determining a number of samples to measure in each cluster such that the uncertainty associated with the estimated total energy consumed by the population of devices is minimized.

Abstract: A method for distributing a document by email. The method includes scanning a business document, extracting an email address from the business document, scanning a document and automatically emailing the scanned document to the email address extracted from the business document.