The end of winter may be in sight but there are still some cold days and nights to get through yet before Spring leaps in. That means that as Energy Managers, it is still imperative that end users are being effective in controlling their energy usage. As the temperature drops we all know the heating controls are turned up, but are we sure that they are turned back down? Especially if your remit is large and the portfolio expansive, ensuring you can automate the detection of ineffectual energy management is key to energy wastage.
It isn’t just gas and electricity that need monitoring in the cold; water pipes are always susceptible to damage through the winter as the temperature drops below zero, especially in buildings where some of the fittings may not have been replaced for a while.
No Energy Management team has the time to check every stream of data manually, so make sure that your Energy Manager package is giving you the best assistance you can get.
Actions
So what can you and your energy management team do to keep a handle on utility usage? Energy Manager has a number of ways to speed up the identification of poor efficiency for all utilities. The Smart Spaces module is designed for those that collect their AMR data from suppliers to help them automate the identification process. If you are receiving daily AMR or half hourly data, your Energy Manager system can be setup with targets and when a meter exceeds these, the building user will be notified via email and asked to acknowledge. This has helped many of our customers pick up on day one any issues that may otherwise have been continuing through the year.
Take a look over your validation rules in Energy Manager. Are they set up to capture shifts in consumption patterns? As an energy management software package it is designed to help you see from your utility invoices just where the usage is increasing and alert you to potential risks.
No Energy Management team has the time to check every stream of data manually, so make sure that your Energy Manager package is giving you the best assistance you can get.
