17 minute read
Monitoring & Metering
THE NEW U1000-WM (WALL MOUNT) IS A SIGNIFICANT ADDITION TO THE MICRONICS ULTRAFLO RANGE OF CLAMP-ON, HEAT/ENERGY AND FLOW METERS
U1000 Heat/Energy and Flow meters are now available in the original pipe-mounted or new wallmounted, display & keyboard format with an extended pipe range!
The U1000MKII is a “Best Value” Clamp-on, Ultrasonic heat meter alternative to traditional inline energy meters, for energy management and billing applications in domestic and commercial, district or shared heating or cooling systems, which offers significant installation cost and dry maintenance benefits over traditional in-line products. And the new U1000 Wall Mount version offers the alternative of Clamp-on pipemounted flow and temperature sensors but with a wall or control panel, display and keyboard plus an extended range to cover larger pipe size applications.
Micronics has built on its success with the ULTRAFLO U1000 heat/energy & flow meter range to develop a WM (Wall Mount) version, which extends the pipe size to cover applications from 25mm – 225mm (8”) OD pipe and the temperature range to 135°C.
And whilst the U1000MKII-WM can still be used as a stand-alone product, in the all important area of connectivity the new product supports optional Mbus or Modbus RTU slave and RS485 serial communications for aM&T or BEMs systems. Still simple to install: connect power and enter the pipe inside diameter, adjust the sensors and clamp-on the pipe with no specialist skills or tools required but now with the added flexibility of an alternative wall or panel mounted keyboard and display and a wider range of application the U1000 MKII heat/ energy and flow meters continue to offer a “Best Value” clamp-on non-invasive alternative to traditional in-line meter installation, with no drain-down required plus dry servicing, providing minimum downtime and maximum availability.
For further information on this product or the Micronics range call Micronics on +44(0)1628 810456, visit www.micronicsflowmeters.com or take a look on YouTube.
MONITORING & METERING The easy way to meter, measure and control your energy supplies.
Get paid upfront for your energy with our prepayment smart meters
Ask us if you qualify for our unique ‘Fit for FREE’ solution
● Prepayment of energy = instant boost to your cashflow! ● Integrates with the PayPoint retailer network
● Your customers can top-up their meter online or with our FREE App ● Online access to your meter readings for accurate energy monitoring ● As installed by British Gas and many other Energy supply companies
0845 230 4535 sales@energycontrols.co.uk www.econtrols.co.uk ENERGY CONTROLS
Energy Controls is an award-winning supplier of electricity SMART meters and prepayment metering systems.
With over 25 years’ experience behind us we know everything there is to know about providing the best metering solution tailored specifically for our customers’ needs. Our SMART meters are ideal for all types of sub-metering applications ranging from Landlord properties to Holiday Parks and Housing Associations.
Prepayment services
Energy Controls is the UK’s No.1 operator of prepayment metering services to the Landlord sector. We have invested heavily in our IT infrastructure to ensure that we have the most reliable and robust online payment solution.
We have joined forces with PayPoint so that Landlords and Park Operators can offer their customers a convenient ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ service for making energy payments.
E470 GSM SMART meter
Our GSM SMART meters offer the most flexible metering solution to give you complete control of your energy supplies. Prepayment is our speciality!
Key features
● Approved to new
MID standards ● Prepayment of your energy supplies ● Exclusive access to PayPoint retailers ● Top-up online or via our FREE App ● Friendly disconnection override ● Remote disconnect/reconnect of supply ● ‘Fit for FREE’ solution!
SMART Software
We have a fully hosted web based software solution that is considered to be the best on the market. Instant access to energy usage data is available to both Landlord and Tenant.
Smartphone App
Users of our SMART Pre-Pay system can now make quick, safe and secure energy payments from their tablet or smartphone. Download the App FREE from the App Store or Google Play.
❝The way that we manage our electricity supplies is vitally important to our business and to the customer service that we provide, but it can involve significant investment. With Energy Controls the entire process has been completely cost-neutral, from the supply and installation of the meters to the infrastructure and training. It’s all covered by a small daily service charge, that we can pass on to our customers through the meter. ❞ Finance Director, Billing Aquadrome
Prepayment
SMART metering
Energy Controls Group Ltd. PO Box 1141, Stratford Upon Avon, CV37 1XN Tel: 0345 230 4535 email: sales@energycontrol.co.uk www.econtrols.co.uk
ENERGY CONTROLS
SMART M-BUS & WEB
ACCURATE & COST EFFECTIVE HEAT METERING AND BILLING PLATFORM
CP1 requires a metering strategy and selection of heat metering, prepayment and billing systems that are accurate and cost effective.
Traditional in-home display infrastructures add significant capital costs, incur replacement expenditure (REPEX) and typically require upgrading every 10 years. Such infrastructures also tend to be proprietary to the billing host. To avoid these issues, the KURVE Smart M-Bus & Web energy metering and billing platform was selected for Lotus Trident’s prestige development in Mitcham. The KURVE platform uses the building’s hardwired M-Bus network for two-way communication with the resident’s HIU energy meters, and communicates energy data and payment functionality to residents across the web. For credit control purposes, KURVE can send a signal via the M-Bus network to close off the HIU heating supply valve, minimising energy debt. KURVE’s low hosting costs, and open protocol M-bus network also ensures residents are not locked into KURVE.
18-19 °C Bedrooms
16-18 °C Hallways, Corridors, Kitchens & Storage Rooms 18-22 °C Children’s Rooms 19-20 °C Living Rooms 22-24 °C Bathrooms
By showing near real-time energy consumption, KURVE helps residents understand and better manage their in-home temperature controls.
A HEAT NETWORK FOR LONDON’S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
The expansion of Greater London has had a profound effect on the small towns and villages surrounding the city. Mitcham is one of those towns that has joined this ever-expanding London collective. In recent years Mitcham has become a popular commuter town due to its proximity to London. To meet the increasing demand for new residential housing, developer Lotus Trident created Greenside Views, an 89-unit development of one, two and three-bedroom homes, served by a heat network and specifically designed to meet the needs of young professionals and families.
CREDIT CONTROL OPTIONS
KURVE’s credit control heat disconnect facility is either automatic Pay As You Go, or at the discretion of the heat supplier, Credit As You Go. Lotus Trident chose the PAYG option which gave all residents the ability to access their consumption history and make payments quickly wherever they are 24/7/365. Industry experience indicates that installing a PAYG solution over credit billing can cut energy consumption by 10% in the first year, and 20% in the second year. If a resident does not have a mobile device available, alternative vulnerable customer support can be provided. In any case there is little investment needed for metering hardware.
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GREENSIDE VIEWS, 89-UNIT - KURVE’S CAPITAL COST SAVING
Looking at the cost of hardware and installation for each metering solution presented to Lotus Trident, KURVE achieved an average saving of 60% or £33,000 across the site.
- Arjun Shah of Lotus Trident
KURVE IN ACTION
Analysis of data collected from Greenside Views showed that the most viewed page on the KURVE App is the consumption page, accounting for over 47% of all visits. For further information about KURVE please call us on 020 3696 4977 or visit www.kurve-tech.com
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HARMONICS ARE COSTING YOU MONEY!
If you operate a business that uses electricity – and which business doesn’t – then it’s a fact that harmonics are costing you money, says Julian Grant of Chauvin Arnoux. To find out how and what you can do about it, read on!
If you’re thinking that I’ve already written about harmonics in this series, you’re right, but I make no apologies for revisiting this important topic. Why? Because these days harmonics are present in every power system and they’re a major cause of unnecessary expenditure.
Furthermore, the overall impact of harmonics is often poorly understood. Let’s start with a very brief reminder of what harmonics are and where they come from. In simple terms, harmonics are currents (or voltages) at frequencies that are integer multiples of the power frequency. For 50 Hz supplies, this means 100 Hz, 150 Hz, 200 Hz, 250 Hz and so on. The source of harmonics is non-linear loads – that is, loads where the current isn’t proportional to the applied voltage throughout the whole of each voltage cycle. In the modern world, non-linear loads are everywhere. LED lighting systems, variable speed drives, computers, office machines and televisions are just a few examples.
But why do harmonics matter, and why do they cost money? One answer is that they generate unwanted heat. In a balanced three-phase power system with no harmonics the current in the neutral conductor will be zero. Introduce harmonics, however, and things are very different because the so-called triplen harmonics – those that are multiples of three times the power frequency (150 Hz, 300 Hz, 450 Hz, etc.) – don’t sum to zero in the neutral conductor even in a perfectly balanced installation. In fact, the harmonic currents add, so in such cases the neutral will potentially be carrying a substantial current.
Unless the neutral conductor has been sized to take this into account, it may well overheat and fail. And even if it is properly sized – which means a larger and more costly conductor – that unwanted heat represents wasted energy and whoever pays the electricity bill pays for that energy.
Of course, heating in neutral conductors is not the only problem caused by harmonics. Because they can produce a magnetic field that rotates in the ‘wrong’ direction in a motor, opposing the field produced by
the power frequency current, they can reduce the torque the motor produces and increase vibration. As a result, it may be necessary to use a bigger motor, and because of the vibration, the life of the motor and the equipment it’s driving may be reduced. Once again, this translates to increased costs.
Harmonics are also a major cause of excess heating in power transformers, which means that if significant levels of harmonics are present in the supply system, larger and more expensive transformers will be needed. It may be easy to assume that this is a problem for the supply company rather than the consumer, but bear in mind that anything that increases costs for the power company will ultimately result in higher energy prices. And, if harmonic levels in an installation are too high, the power company may well refuse to provide a supply!
Moving on from unwanted heating, another and much less well-known problem associated with harmonics is their effect on power factor. The usual assumptions are that power factor issues are related purely to inductive loads and they can be corrected by adding capacitors to the power system. Unfortunately, this is only true in power systems where no harmonics are present.
The real situation is that power factor has two components. The first is the displacement power factor and this corresponds to the usual view of power factor as described in the last paragraph. The second component is the distortion factor (DF), which relates directly to harmonics. Distortion factor is often neglected or ignored but, because of the prevalence of harmonics in today’s supply systems, it is no longer reasonable to do this.
The overall true power factor for a machine or installation is given by displacement power factor multiplied by distortion factor and, since in practice distortion factor is always less than 1, the true power factor is always worse than the displacement power factor considered alone. And it’s the true power factor that determines how much nonproductive energy – which has to be paid for – is taken from the supply system.
Clearly there’s an incentive to improve both the displacement power factor and distortion factor but there’s a complication: distortion factor cannot be corrected by adding capacitors. In fact, the addition of capacitors can actually make the situation worse, because resonances may occur at one of the harmonic frequencies. Achieving an effective solution will depend on the application but will typically involve the use of both capacitors and chokes.
By now it should be readily apparent that harmonics in the supply system are undesirable and also a potent source of increased costs. What’s to be done? Fortunately, there are many practical and effective ways of mitigating harmonics. The first steps, however, are always the same – assess and investigate the problem. The best way to do this is to use a modern portable energy logger (PEL), such as the PEL104 or PEL106 from Chauvin Arnoux. These compact and affordable instruments can be readily connected at various points in an electrical installation to measure and record the level of harmonics present, along with many other parameters such as voltage, current and power factor. The data provided by an exercise like this will give a good insight into the level and types of harmonic present, together with an indication of their source. This will allow suitable mitigation measures to be devised, and once they have been implemented, further tests with the PEL will confirm their effectiveness.
In today’s highly competitive business world, you can’t afford and shouldn’t be paying for harmonics in your supply system. So make sure you don’t – invest in a PEL and set out on the path to savings today! www.chauvin-arnoux.co.uk
MONITORING & METERING
It is no secret that heating in the UK is going through a seismic change, especially for large apartment and multi-dwelling buildings. Climate change is leading us to decarbonise our energy infrastructure whilst fuel poverty is requiring us to reduce energy cost for homeowners. These two issues have led to calls to adopt heat networks for these structures. The lower carbon emissions and more energy efficient operation features of heat networks are well documented. The single energy centre allows for all domestic hot water (DHW) and heating (HTG) to be generated and distributed from a single location. However, what is less talked about is the ability of the networks to utilise digitised metering solutions. Heat networks can provide easier access to energy use and performance data.
Digitalised data from the plant room through to the individual HIUs is key to reaping the benefits of heat networks. Kamstrup, a leader in energy metering solutions has suggested a plethora of savings that can be made from the digitisation of data collection.
The company have found a 2.5% reduction in heating production losses as well as a 12% reduction from pipeline heating losses, resulting in big savings.
These savings from digitising data collection is not just reserved for clients and facilities managers, reduced losses in the heating system results in lower tariffs for residents. The digitisation of energy metering data collection will change how we see, understand, and use energy data. Traditionally energy data has been collected either manually (from a walk around visual reading) or automatically from each energy meter through a device called a datalogger. Once a month the datalogger is connected either remotely or on-site to the meter and the daily energy meter readings can be extracted for the month period. This data is either imported into a separate computer program or exported as an excel file.
While a trusted collection method, the traditionally individual datalogger desktop program is out of date, both technically and in displaying energy data.
The datalogger relies on a small internal memory that can only store data up to a certain amount (depending on the size of the network and frequency of readings). As such frequent downloads are required, or data can be lost. When energy data is exported into excel, it can be difficult to extract the data needed. There can be up to 29 lines of performance metric data for each reading. This makes manually working through the excel file to extract performance data an arduous process.
The key for successful digitalisation of meter readings falls to a few basic points; automatic readings, centralised data, simple interface. Ensuring that all your meter readings are automatically collected and stored in a centralised database helps alleviate the manual arduous process of collecting data each month. Your system should be able to then forward this data through various means (SFTP, FTPS, APIs) for stakeholders e.g., metering and billing. Finally keeping it simple, not every person looking at the data will be a fully trained heat network engineer with the time to dig through lines of data. Having simple methods or dashboards for understanding the performance is crucial. For instance, a report that will rank the volumeweighted average return temperatures (VWARTs) of each energy meter can quickly highlight the worst performers in the network and show where to send engineers to improve the system.
At this moment, there are a number of software options to digitise heating data. One software that is already able to collect and simplify data is the Kamstrup READy software. The software is already working with over 5 million endpoints and can collect your meter data with easy-to-read graphs, reports and displays. Online metering solutions have also been developed for the homeowner to view their energy usage. KURVE, a PAYG metering solution is one such online portal. Optimised to work with heat networks the software provides homeowners access to their energy data, even being able to pay their energy bills. KURVE can be accessed from a mobile app and desktop web page, with easy access to energy histories and payments. This allows residents to make informed decisions on how to use their energy, leading to eventual money and carbon savings.
Like much of our modern world, the future of heating data collection and analysis will be digitised and be available to view online. For the facilities manger and engineer, the obvious benefit of digitisation in the time saved finding and presenting crucial data. For the resident of a heat network building the ability to easily access and understand their energy data provides a new sense of control over their energy use. As the expansion of heat network in the UK continues, its worth keeping in mind the possibilities that digitising energy metering data collection can have. https://www.sav-systems.com/
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