5 common mistakes with submetering

Knowing where all your energy is used in the building is important. You can start by estimating based on calculations to see roughly where you energy is being consumed, but the best way is to use submeters to create the insight you need.

With a smart metering industry that has started properly in the early 2000’s, you would expect that the market has matured and mistakes are not made anymore. That’s not the case, so here are 5 common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Connectivity

Placing submeters in your building is good, but don’t forget to make sure that all the data it’s generating is collected and stored somewhere. There’s tons of examples out there where smart meters have been installed, but nobody actually thought about how they would be connected and this results in your smart meter becoming dumb. Bring out your paper notebook, walk around and note the meter reading!

Everything

Don’t forget to connect all your big energy consuming equipment and floors. It’s a waste if you just invested into a smart metering system, only to figure out that it captures 50% of your total energy consumption. A rule of thumb here is to make sure that 90% of you energy consumption is measured with energy meters. The remainder is for the category: Other

How do you capture 90%? Measure each individual floor and main all assets such as air handling units, chillers, the kitchen. Typically that would get you close to 90% of the total consumptionDat

Data storage

Make sure that your data is stored properly, and not overwritten, lost or deleted after a while. As data storage isn’t that costly, make sure you have a proper energy management system which allows you to store data indefenitely.

Interval

The rule of thumb with interval is the smaller the interval, the better the information is. Having monthly overviews is nice, but it doesn’t give you the any insights into you daily consumption or what’s consumed during the night. Try to get at least hourly values for gas, heating and cooling, and 15 minute interval data for your electricity

Inactivity

Once you have the data, have the insights, it’s time to act upon it. There’s no bigger waste than seeing energy being wasted, but not acting upon it. Involve your team, from the technical maintenance contractor, to cleaning staff to receptionist. Dive into the puzzle, walk around at night when you have a high nightly consumption, listen to your building (yeah, this can actually help!)