Energy end-use monitoring system for both electricity and natural gas energy sources
I am looking for an energy end-use monitoring system that we can use in buildings that use both electrical and natural gas energy. There are a lot of really good electrical energy end-use monitoring systems, but very few that include the ability to connect to natural gas meters. The qualities I am looking for include:
– Reasonable capital cost that allow the system to be used by cash-conscience organizations (e.g. affordable housing) who are eager to reduce their energy costs
– If possible, no ongoing subscription fees (e.g. SaaS); these can be crippling and counter-productive for cash-conscience organizations
– Fully cloud based platform (no requirement for a server)
– Web-based user interface that can be viewed and used to download data remotely
– Attractive web-based dashboard that can be used to display real-time energy use data on a public kiosk, monitor, or TV
– The ability to monitor both single and three phase electricity circuits at various voltages (e.g. 120, 208, 240, 480, and 600 VAC)
– The ability monitor multiple electrical circuits
– The ability to connect to natural gas and water meters, so that the data can be accessed and downloaded remotely, and included on the web-based dashboard.
Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated!
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Greg,
I don't know of any system that meets your criteria.
GBA readers?
Thanks Martin. I was afraid of that, and it really is too bad.
I work with a lot of cost-conscience organizations on net-zero and Passive House projects that are interested in tracking their end-use data for the purposes of learning and improving themselves, and sharing information with others. There seems to be a real sweet spot in the market that is being overlooked between the relatively inexpensive, but more general residential systems like (Sense, CURB, Neurio, Smappee) and the very expensive, but very detailed systems like Schneider Power Logic.
If it helps anyone, we are cobbling together systems for buildings with natural gas and electricity end-uses using eGauge and EKM Metering. They work, and are relatively inexpensive, but they require someone to combine the data gas and electricity data together and do a bit of processing. eGauge is great for sub-metering multiple circuits, and does have the ability to interface with a 3rd party pulse counter that can be connected to natural gas meters. EKM Metering isn't great for sub-metering multiple circuits, but they have the gas and water meter thing figured out. These solutions take a bit more work but work, but are handy when you are not close to site and want to grab and process the data remotely.
When you mentioned Schneider, it made me wonder if you have talked to anyone working on BACnet? I see they now have a Smart Grid working group: http://www.bacnet.org/WG/SG/index.html Could be folks there, or in some other subcommittee, with ideas. (Years ago I worked a bit with building automation systems, now I just have "Sense" at home.)
Also, here in State College, PA we have the company EnergyCap. I have run into their people at various meetings, and have been impressed. They may be more billing interface based, but I do believe they can track all utilities, and I see they have worked with some housing authorities. http://www.energycap.com/
Chuckled to myself as I finished this note. The last corporate wide utility review that I was involved with was to determine whether my company should aggregate all electric purchasing, US wide, under one vendor. (I managed high power transmission sites, we used a lot of electricity.) We had hired a consultant who, contrary to my expectation, said: "Don't do it!" The vendor we were looking at: Enron. That consultant got more than one thank you note from me...
Pretty sure Power Wise can do all 3 (electricity, gas + water) -
http://www.powerwisesystems.com
John,
Thanks for your advice for Greg (and for reminding me about Power Wise).
For more information on Power Wise monitoring systems, GBA readers might want to watch a video in which Katrin Klingenberg interviews a Power Wise representative about the features of the company's monitoring systems. If you click the link below, the relevant part of the video begins at 24:37.
Video: New Passivhaus Products
Sensaphone offers a Sentinel system that is web based.
You can connect 4-20mA transducers and pulse type inputs for the water & gas meter. Among other sensors that they offer.
https://www.sensaphone.com/products/sensaphone-sentinel-monitoring-system.php