Traditional multi-residential buildings usually have a single central meter installed that provides the consumption information of the entire building infrastructure. As a result, most of the time individual residents have an inequitable allocation of energy costs as they have no real data to find out actual consumption by individual residents. In modern times, submetering is becoming increasingly popular to multi-storied residents, property managers and owners, as it provides accurate consumption data and provides fair allocation of energy costs.
SO WHAT IS SUBMETERING?
Submetering, also sometimes called suite metering, incorporates use of meters to measure the energy consumption of each individual unit in a multi-storied building like an apartment, condominium, townhome and so on. Submetering solutions for multistoried residential buildings include electricity, water, gas, and thermal submetering.
Electrical submetering – Electricity costs are one of the highest building operating costs in any building and with traditional metering systems, there is no real way to account for accurate energy consumption. Electrical submetering allows measurement of each suite’s energy consumption, helps tenants become more energy conscious and curbs superfluous energy costs.
Water submetering – Submetering water in multistoried residential buildings can help reduce water wastage, reduce building operating costs, and enhance water conservation as they provide unit-wise consumption of water in a building.
Gas submetering – In addition to electricity and water submetering, gas is another building utility that can also have a submetering system. Individual tenants are billed for their gas consumption. Gas submetering can be an excellent option for apartments, condominiums or townhomes that have in-suite gas stoves, fireplaces, or BBQs.
Thermal submetering – With thermal submetering, property managers, owners as well as occupants can better control and manage heating and cooling costs as it allows each suite to be responsible for the heating and cooling that they use.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SUBMETERING?
Submetering is especially beneficial for multi-storied residentials as well as facilities that have an extensive network of units or facilities where energy management is of great concern. Submetering individual suites allows for lower energy consumption — up to 40% in multi-unit residential buildings. As utility costs continue to increase, tenants demand fair energy cost allocation and lower utility bills while property owners or managers look for ways to reduce building operating costs and increase energy efficiency.
BETTER MANAGE AND MAINTAIN YOUR BUILDING
In addition to allowing the individual resident or building manager to monitor energy consumption precisely in real-time via IoT solutions, the system also stores real-time energy usage data. This data can facilitate the energy manager to analyze and compare energy consumption in similar buildings over a period of time. It can also help in identifying areas where energy is being wasted and take improved decisions that optimizes the building performance, curbs energy costs as well as carbon footprint.
FAIR ENERGY COST ALLOCATION
Tenants living in multi-storied residential buildings and traditional metered buildings are usually billed on the square footage of their space. The electricity bill accounts for the entire building and depends on the amount of space each resident rents. As a results tenants are billed on the entire consumption of all the residents and not as per their individual consumption. However, with submeter, each tenant is billed for the exact energy amount they consumed.
GET ACCURATE AND DETAILED ENERGY ANALYTICS
Users of multi-storied residential buildings can better track their energy usage, identify areas of energy waste, improve energy consumption habits, and reduce the overall consumption costs.
MOTIVATE BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES THAT LOWER ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND COSTS
Submetering utilities such as electricity, hydro, thermal and gas provides real-time individual suite consumption. As a result, users are billed based on actual consumption and they have a clear idea of their energy consumption habits. This fair-pay system has been proven to reduce energy consumption and lower costs by motivating behavioral changes such as turning off lights or air-conditioning, when leaving a room.
Today’s property owners, managers – even individuals are conscious about energy sustainability and committed to reducing their carbon footprint. Submeter is no doubt here to stay and an excellent option for multi-residential building owners and managers to have access to energy consumption data that is precise and utilize it to make informed decisions, reduce energy costs and carbon footprint.
At A-TECH Engineering – a leading energy company based in Toronto, we provide submetering solutions including electricity, water, gas and thermal via strategic partners to transform your multistoried residential building into an energy saving building. Connect with A-TECH Engineering member to find out how our submetering solutions can help you.