Snapmeter users tend to fall in love with their heatmaps, since it’s so easy to identify scheduling shifts.
The solid red horizontal lines show this building sometimes ran for 24 hours straight, and often started up really early and shutdown really late. Thankfully, this was all fixed in July!
Pro tip: Net meters, say with solar generating assets lowering demand readings, will often show relatively low energy use in the middle of the day. That pattern is often referred to as the duck curve.
Color-coded key
At the top of the chart is the color-coded scale of kW, from a low in dark blue to a high in dark red. Each meter’s color-coded scale is unique, as it is automatically scaled to the range of kW values reported in your meter’s data history.
One row, or one interval, at a time
Months are noted by a horizontal black bar across the heatmap. Simply scroll up or down to move forwards and backwards through time.
Each row represents one calendar day, and each square a specific interval. Hover over a square to see more detail, or click the square and jump right into the interval data browser to review that day in greater detail.
The most popular way to use the heatmap is to scroll through a batch of months and visually scan for changes in startup time or shutdown sequencing. The deepest red reflects the top of the load curve for that day. A solid row in orange or red would mean the meter was drawing power fairly nonstop.