Measure the consumption, first step of energy performance
Measure the consumption, first step of energy performance
The idea is not innovative, but its application, however, opens up the prospect of quite substantial savings. Measurement equipments now facilitate the task and provide an instructive inventory of energy consumption. Measurement is the foundation stone of energy performance, before considering heavier investments.
Is it exaggerated to say that building operators must learn to count?
Maybe not, because in many cases, knowledge of energy consumption is limited to the index mentioned on the invoices. However, the precise knowledge of the cosumption of each major item, which can be qualified as analytical, can surprise and bring down many received ideas. This is applicable to all fluids and energy vectors, but probably electricity, water or compressed air have the most to gain, due to the strong capillarity of their uses, unlike oil or gas.
Measuring is already saving
Measuring the electricity consumption by major types of uses (heating, lighting, elevators, hot water,…) enables to understand what are the priority energy savings points to deal with.But to start analysing the consumptions by types of services brings a very different vision !
For example, in a hotel, measuring energy costs separately for the rooms, laundry, restaurant,… enables to select more relevant energy savings actions. But this second analysis is however much less common than the first.
Submetering: the offer is getting a real structure
The sub-metering and measurement of electric power today have interest in the context of relevant and pragmatic analysis. Hence the arrival on the market of software solutions for data analysis, in supplements of dataloggers organized in network.
For tertiary panels above 125 A, in general, circuit breakers include a metering function connected to a bus to centralise the data (RS485, Modbus, KNX or Profinet …). For several types of energy meters and power monitors, Legrand option is to assign an IP address to each panel, possibly with the help of a RS485/IP converter, to simplify the communication of consumption indexes to users and managers, directly on PC or smartphone. For commercial and industrial applications, Phoenix Contact provides a structured offer of power monitors Empro adapted to energy management. Phoenix Contact provides other added value for collecting and managing data, with SQL database, SNMP or e-mailing solutions.
Comments
Post a Comment