31/10/2019
Why measuring energy consumption data is critical in developing sustainable energy strategies
You want to make your property(ies) more energy efficient, lower your emission footprint and hopefully lower your PLN bill. Perhaps you are thinking about adding solar panels, energy storage or even getting rid of that Genset. Perhaps you are eyeing that EV car or scooter.
You need data to get where you want to go. Most people plan road trips with the use of data. They know their destination, how many km and days it will take, find maps, get directions, check their car, calculate how many liters fuel are need, etc. These day many use GPS maps.
Somehow this is not happening with most people’s energy use destination. They don’t really know at what their base use is, at what times their peak use is or even how much that pool or AC is consuming.
To make efficient use of your energy you will need to plan your energy use. If you are going to use Solar power, you will need to move the use of heavy appliances such as pumps, washing machines and water heaters to when you are generating most energy with your panels. You need to know what exactly the energy requirements are so you can plan schedules to avoid over-capacity or under-capacity.
You need to do all that before you purchase panels, batteries or sign up with PLN net-metering. How much capacity do you really need? I have seen solar system vendors sell their customers way too much capacity because customers had no energy use map other than their PLN bill. Vendors don’t care. Sure, they probably give you some energy analysis, but that is without you maximizing efficiency, timing etc…
Even when you are not using or planning to use solar, you need detailed data on your energy develop reduction strategies. How much energy is wasted on AC and pool pumps? Are they on too long? Are the kids or staff being lazy turning things off.
Tip. One of our customers has a deal with their kids. She measures the kid’s rooms energy use and has a live “family” energy dash board where among many other data the kid’s weekly kWh and Rp is displayed. Their weekly allowance is partially based on their rooms’ weekly Rp energy use.
Energy Storage (batteries) and PLN net-metering are essentially the same thing and it also demands detailed energy use planning. You need data for that.
EV will require even more planning. When is the best time based on the available power and building energy requirements? You will have to move consumption around to find the best charging strategy.
As a final note. You want to see that data when you are travelling. Remotely accessible servers can be located at your property (old PC, Raspberry Pi) or in the cloud.
This is the commercialized version of what our Indofungi AgriTech developed the measure our energy use. We are fairly heavy energy users and it helped us saving around 30% of our monthly kWh.
https://emonindonesia.com/blog/energy-data-critical/
