Monitor and Measure

There's an old adage that you can't manage what you don't measure. Yet most businesses have no measure of the amount of energy that is being consumed from day to day, nor what that energy is being used for.

When you're trying to improve the energy consumption of your property, you need to continually monitor the energy consumption of each utility service. Or, even better, monitor the energy consumption of each separate energy consumer - such as lighting, heating, office equipment, air conditioning, and so on.

An intelligent building continually monitors and records energy consumption and carbon emissions, so that trends can be plotted over time, and the effects of changes of control or behaviour can be assessed. By fitting sensors to each utility service and linking these to a data logger, which also records events such as lights being turned on and windows being opened, your facility managers can properly manage energy consumption and recommend improvements.