Tips & Tricks for Monitoring Energy in Your Building

Electricity is a crucial element of the modern world. It's used in everything from powering your lights, heat, and AC to your computer. Electricity is an invisible, constantly changing element. To be as successful and efficient with energy management for your business or personal home, you need to understand how the process works and have a plan.

The best way to conserve electricity is to know where it is being used and, if possible, why. Once you've identified the problem, the next step is finding out what you can do to fix it. Monitoring your electricity usage will keep your costs down and improve your profits by ensuring you only pay for what you use. Here are some tips and tricks for monitoring energy in your building.

1. Analyze Meter Data

The meter reading for your electricity is one place to start. You can immediately see how much energy you use or pay for daily. You will get a reading every month from your electric company. If you are self-monitoring with a small solar or other generator-based system, you will have this meter data available daily.

When you get your data, look at the kWh column. This column usually gives you a good idea of what your usage is being billed for. If you find out that large amounts of kWh are being used without a good reason, or a whole range above what you expect daily, something needs to be fixed. The data can also show how much energy is used by certain appliances or in different parts of your building.

2. Use Monitoring Software

Many modern energy monitoring programs make getting information from your utility meters or other data sources easier. These programs will help you analyze the data to see trends in your usage and find opportunities for saving money. They will also help you find problems with your equipment and make the necessary changes to ensure that your system will be more efficient. The automatic system will log your data for you and monitor usage continuously. The best energy monitoring software will combine various features. It should create energy reports and analyses with all the relevant details for making decisions about your equipment and usage. Use the data you gather from monitoring software to complete a monthly analysis. This will show you how your expenditures are changing monthly compared to your previous months.

3. Know What to Look for

Just looking at the meter data from your building is not enough. Understand what to look for in the data to get the most out of it. If you compare your energy usage from month to month, you can see if your use is going up or down and why it may be changing. Find out exactly what each building and area of your business uses.

You should also evaluate your energy use over a day and determine if there are any patterns. Are you using more energy during certain times of the day? If so, why? If you find a spike in usage at a certain time, the first thing to check is what equipment is running. Is it being operated correctly? Is it on when it shouldn't be, or not on when it needs to be?

4. Take Advantage of New Technology

Technology has given us many new options for monitoring electrical usage in our homes and businesses. Digital meters allow you to check the current measurements of voltage, current, and power in your building daily. This allows you to get the information you need for your analysis and management needs. The newer meters are also highly flexible. You can use them to record and manage power usage during peak times, with various options for recording time, amount, and other parameters.

Other energy monitoring options include smart meters, which use radio frequency to send the data directly from your meter to your computer. These meters will also record the amount of energy sent to your building and provide you with historical data. You can set hourly or daily limits on these meters and receive alerts if your energy usage exceeds these limits.

Conclusion

The best way to manage your energy usage is to know where the problem areas lie. You need high-quality monitoring tools that will give you a complete image of what is happening in your building and with your equipment. This will help you find any problems early on and better manage the amount of energy you use.