How have our monthly utility bills changed since we installed some of Silicon Valley’s latest built environment technology, Software Motor Company’s “LED of motors,” in the rooftop units on one of our buildings? To answer this question, Basin Street Properties turned to Gridium for a push-button measurement & verification report.
M&V reports, drift charts, variance by source tables, and long-term trend graphs are available in Gridium.
What is weather-normalized change in energy use?
Looking only at the difference between two utilities bills is far from enough to see the impact of your team’s energy efficiency investments.
Weather normalization isolates the changes in your building’s energy use that can be attributed to changes in the weather from the changes in energy use attributed to other causes: baseload use & operational use.
In most buildings, weather has an impact on how much energy is used. Imagine if May 2018 had above average temperature while May 2017 was below average. It would seem these two months are each an apple and an orange. But by filtering out weather effects–by correcting for observed differences in the temperature–you can isolate the other changes and focus on what’s actually happening inside the building, or on top of the roof!
Switched reluctance rather than induction motors
SMC Smart Motors feature a patented switched reluctance design. Industry results highlight exponential improvements against standard induction motors in torque, power density, efficiency and versatility. This means varying degrees of power savings across the range of motor RPM. To learn more about the motors, including specifics on fan energy savings and their remote monitoring and preventive maintenance capabilities, read SMC’s Basin Street Properties case study.
M&V for sustainability investments
Seeing the returns from energy efficiency projects with accurate measurement & verification reports gives Basin Street confidence in their sustainability investments. If you have questions about Gridium’s M&V reports, please let us know, and check out this podcast episode with Mark Shahinian, President of the Future Grid Coalition, if you’re curious about the progress of Normalized Metered Energy Consumption (NMEC).
