Energy Management: You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure

The old saying goes, you can't manage what you don't measure.

This little meter was easy to configure and easy to use. This device makes monitoring consumption in real time easy. For $129, that's impressive.

That is certainly the case with Energy Management. Information allows you to make informed decisions and can often uncover things that are unexpected.

Last week I installed a Current Cost ENViR energy meter in my home. This is a "whole house" meter that connects to the main electrical supply entering entering my home. It has two clamp on current transmitters and a programmable voltage (it does not require voltage taps). It also has a wireless transmitter to transmit the consumption data from the electrical panel to a nice little display.

I have put the display unit in my kitchen where we can see what the current consumption is at any time of the day. As time goes on, we are getting a feel for what our "baseline" is. When we are above the baseline, the obvious question is "what is running that should not be?".

This weekend, we plan to shut everything off and then turn on one device at a time and figure out how much energy it draws. We will enter each device and its draw into a spreadsheet and figure out which are the worst culprits and what actions we can take to minimize their use or if we should replace them.

I have already noticed that the dryer is a big drag on my wallet. I notice that we are usually using about 600 watts in the morning, but we were almost 3 times that the other day when the dryer was running. Air drying is beginning to look like a good idea!

Green Energy - A Watt saved is a Watt earned.

This blog post might get me into trouble.

This is a case where I think my opinion is shared by many in our industry who are just afraid to speak up for fear of losing business or being ridiculed.

Money spent on most green energy technologies is wasted!
There I said it. Every dollar that is spent to GENERATE green energy, could be better used to SAVE energy.

Perceptions are the Problem:
Energy conservation methods do not have the sex appeal that new forms of generation do. The reality is that we already have ways to generate lots of energy cheaply without foreign oil or creating greenhouse gases. Nuclear Energy has served us well. If one were to calculate the cost in human lives for each Watt of energy consumed in the United States by Nuclear Generation and any other major source, you would find that Nuclear Energy is the cleaner, safer, alternative.

I am sure that our electrical founding father, Benjamin Franklin, would agree that a Watt saved is a Watt earned.

I admit that energy conservation efforts are not sexy, but they are a better investment than green generation (assuming that we do not consider subsidies). There is a lot of room in my industry for improvement, but it is a difficult sell. The savings lie in software and improved methods to reduce consumption that will have little or no visible impact and may result in reducing human comfort (gasp).

As an example, ENE Systems has developed a clever Optimal Start / Optimal Stop OPC Server that can connect to most commercial control systems to start temperature control equipment at the last possible minute to achieve set point prior to occupancy. Without this type of software, achieving set point prior to occupancy is normally done by turning on the equipment on an hour or more prior to occupancy to make sure that the space has a chance to warm up.

I have a lot more to say about this subject, but this is enough for today's post. Stay tuned for: "You get what you measure".