In Multi Occupied Offices, one of the most common complaints from both tenants and landlords is having reliable data with which to provide accurate billing based upon the actual consumption of electricity, gas and water.
Main meters are already being read remotely by the utility providers, but they just read the whole buildings use.
Unfair Billing
The billing methods still still being used to bill tenants usually follow the traditional method which is simply based on the sq/m occupied by each tenant, but what about those tenants that have less users and less energy needs than those with many more users?
i.e. Why am I paying the same for my 20 staff members vs another tenant who has 50 staff in the same sq/m? They will have a much higher HVAC usage. This is of course unfair. Also if a tenant occupies a larger area then they should be billed on usage accordingly.
Heat networks (district heating as we used to call it) are part of the governments strategy to reduce carbon emissions which being rolled out for new builds, and when combined with Heat interface units which form part of this decentralisation which will enable actual usage billing.
Similar multi type HIU's are already being developed that can do heating, cooling and water billing through one device. This article in FMJ magazine, explains more.
That's great for new builds but what about the existing building stock which accounts for the majority of the existing consumption - which needs tackling now?
Accurate billing for Cooling has always been a challenge
Modern buildings may have sub-meters for electricity and water per floor, but what about the majority that don't, and having the ability to bill for cooling with central chillers is highly inaccurate. Some tenants may have their own cooling systems for their own demise but the majority don't. Billing for cooling and heating based on usage has always been a challenge. Until now!
These Ultrasonic heat/cool meters which we supply and fit with IoT Modbus connectivity are a highly accurate low-cost retrofit, with either a mains or battery Powered with a 10 Year Lithium Battery.
M-Bus - M-Bus Output, Wireless M-Bus Output
MODBus - MODBus RS485 Output
Compliance - RHI Compliant
Here is the full technical spec of these Ultrasonic units
There are of course many other heat meters available, and as long as they have either Modbus or M-Bus output capability then potentially these can be connected to our IoT Modbus interface unit.
VRF systems can also be monitored and managed by individual electricity consumption per system, which can be achieved per individual condenser with our IoT CT units.
EnviroLogik has the ability and experience to provide live consumption data for electricity, cooling, heating and water usage, by remotely connecting and reading the data from these Ultrasonic Heat/Cool meters with our IoT Modbus interface units and giving the information to landlords, managing agents, consultants and service providers alike.
Information from these units can be used to provide a much more accurate bill based on actual usage, which of course makes for much happier tenants and landlords alike.
If you require individual equipment electrical energy usage - such as from chillers, pumps, VRF's etc, to monitor energy cost then these can be provided via IoT CT clamps at Main control panels.
Cost Savings
The time spent by businesses each month in determining the consumption that should be attributed to each tenant can be extensive. Tenants are always looking at other options especially when it comes to reduced occupancy and that may mean relocating to other buildings where accurate billing is already in place.
For sites with sub-meters, (whether pulse or analogue) savings can be made by not requiring someone to manually take meter readings every week - often a mobile site engineer. These sub-meters can be read remotely via our IoT meter interface units
Retrofitting heat/cool meters units to existing M&E systems is straightforward with minimum disruption to each occupier. A simple free survey will determine the No, type and size of units heat/cool meters required, and the RF Modbus units along with the connection gateways to the cloud to enable a full cost of investment. This may come out of either a Capex or Opex budget.
Why not request a full quotation and demo of an existing billing system? Get in touch by clicking the link below.
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