A guide to improved energy management through better energy metering
Commercial buildings are responsible for approximately one fifth of the UK’s CO2 emissions, however the sector as a whole has historically been profligate in its attitude to energy use. Such energy wastage not only results in unnecessary cost to business, but is fundamentally detrimental to the industry’s efforts to drive down CO2 emissions in line with the government’s ambitious, but necessary reduction targets.
Effective energy management is therefore an essential part of any sustainability strategy.
A critical first step in any energy management programme is the accurate measurement and monitoring of how much energy a building uses. This is by no means an easy process and is an area which Better Building Partnership (BBP) members find extremely challenging.
Appropriate metering systems, installed so as to record consumption throughout a building, are able to provide owners and occupiers with the information necessary in order to take the first steps towards improving the energy efficiency of their buildings. The property industry is becoming increasingly interested in the use of metering systems given their many benefits, including the potential for energy, cost and CO2 savings, as well as the provision of data to support corporate reporting and compliance with increasing environmental legislation such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. The likely future mandatory roll-out of Display Energy Certificates to commercial buildings is an added driver.
However, the opportunities for confusion are significant. An increasing number of suppliers offering a perplexing variety of different metering systems, coupled with an understandably confusing variety of terms such as ‘smart’, ‘AMR’, ‘advanced’, ‘sub’, ‘fiscal’ and ‘check’ meters, creates potential for a disjointed industry approach to such a key area of environmental management.
The BBP, tasked with developing practical guidance on the subject, has produced this Toolkit. It sets out the metering options currently available for commercial buildings, considers the costs and benefits and provides advice on how metering data can be used to make energy and cost reductions.
We hope that this Toolkit provides a helpful guide for ‘non-technical’ decision makers and supports both owners and occupiers when engaging with metering system designers, suppliers and utility companies in order to ensure that the most appropriate and effective solutions are implemented in their buildings.
Download “Better Metering Toolkit, a guide to improved energy management through better energy metering”
Case Studies
Knowledge gained by monitoring is the driver for actions.
The key to get where you want to go is to know where you are now. Early on, Ii started monitoring energy and utility consumptions. Ii municipality (pronounced “ee”) is a…
Kingston University London Saves 25% with Sub-metering
This equated to approximately 320,000 kWh over a year, or around 168 tons of CO2. Kingston University is a major seat of learning with over 25000 students and 2,500 full-time…
Implementation of AMR metering within British Land’s Head Office
British Land saved £45,000 in the first year and expects to achieve payback in 18-24 months. Back in 2009, British Land’s trialled an AMR metering system at its Head Office,…
