Monitoring a business’ electrical consumption can be undertaken in varying amounts of detail.
A high-level analysis could look at the monthly bills or take monthly manual meter reads of the main tariff meter and compare the electric consumption from month to month.
However, this will only provide an overview of how much electricity you are using each month.
For more detail about business electrical consumption, half-hourly consumption data can be used to analyse when & where energy is being consumed and how to make savings.
It is possible to request the half-hourly data from electricity suppliers, however specialist software to configure the data for analysis is required.
Once you have got to grips with scrutinising the main tariff meter data, it may be worth looking at consumption in specific areas of the building.
Depending on your needs and the building complexity, a sub-metering system can be used to collect data in different areas of the building.
Sub-metering systems can be as simple or as extensive as you like (see Sub-metering system ideas). For example, sub-meters could be added to each floor to simply measure the electrical consumption for each floor in the building or, sub-meters could be installed to monitor various components throughout the building i.e. the chillers, the AHUs, the lighting and power, the plant rooms etc.
Key Things To Look For
- Compare the energy consumption patterns to the daily business activity.
- Look for unusual energy consumption when the building is unoccupied, i.e. during the early hours of the morning, at weekends and on bank holidays.
- Compare cooling and heating data to identify any potential clashes.
