ROI
Although not required by code—with the exception of certain areas, such as the city of Seattle—submetering is still considered “nice to have” and not a necessity. A major concern of building professionals who consider implementing a metering project is the lack of a pre-defined return on investment. “It’s hard for building owners and facility managers to justify the business case for implementing metering when you can’t provide the administration with information about what the payback might be,” Hull says. “But, you don’t know what you don’t know. You have to start generating the data to know where you need to go. However, generating data is only the fi rst step in the process. It’s what you do with it that counts.”
Relatively few utility companies are offering specific incentives for electrical submetering at this point; however, many are offering incentives based on energy-conservation measures. Optimization incentives vary from one utility to another but generally pay for 20 to 30 percent of the cost of implementing submeters.
There are three key reasons a building owner should consider implementing and monitoring energy use in his or her buildings. For one, it establishes a baseline for the energy use in the building that is accurate. Benchmarking and comparing one building against another is appropriate in some situations but the best benchmark for any building is against itself.
“Another reason is that submetering allows for building operators to look for the opportunities to reduce energy,” Hull adds. “For example, plug loads in buildings can be a major drain on energy, especially after normal business hours. If you were able to identify and monitor these situations, reducing plug loads by 20 to 30 percent is possible in some instances.” Identifying the low- and no-cost energy-conservation measures, such as with plug loads, becomes easier if energy use is monitored.
“The third reason is that understanding how energy is used by the individual building systems offers the opportunity to change building-management procedures and recommend longer-term capital-intensive energy-conservation measures,” Hull concludes. Hull recently worked on a high-rise multifamily project in Hawaii with a single electrical meter for the building. Tenants complained that despite individual efforts of trying to save energy, others in the building weren’t conserving energy and everyone’s bills were higher. Seven months after installing electrical submeters and holding tenants accountable for heavy energy use, the overall building reduced energy costs by 20 percent. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. These words ring very true in the energy-efficiency world.
Although there are instances where a building owner may only want a temporary installation of submeters to diagnose a problem, most submeters are permanently installed. Once energy-conservation measures have been identified and corrected, the meters can be used long term to monitor for unusual energy spikes and to ensure energy use stays where expected.
Hull advocates for a phased approach for building owners looking to make the leap into energy metering. “I believe in a crawl, walk and then run approach to metering in buildings,” he notes. “If you don’t have the in-house ability to perform an energy audit, hire a commercial energy auditor to assess the property and begin to develop a strategy for energy metering. Look for immediate needs and where the low- to no-cost measures can be implemented with little effort.”
Hull believes every building can benefit from energy metering. “Any building can implement some level of metering whether it has a full building-management system or not,” he says. “Approximately 60 percent of our meters are installed in existing buildings without computerized building-management systems that control the building heating, cooling and lighting.”
There is a general trend with the cost of energy consumed in buildings: It’s going up. Investments made in reducing energy use in our current building stock will pay dividends down the road, long after the simple payback for the equipment and time invested has been met. Saving operational dollars is a common language that any building owner can understand.
INTERESTED IN SUBMETERS?
Consider contacting the following manufacturers:
E-Mon
Honeywell
Leviton
Schneider Electric