Smarten up
With the demand for high-tech energy
Smart meters will, thanks to their two-way flow of
information via the internet, tell users more about
meters expected to soar, what options
their energy consumption, but will also give energy
are available for equipment specifiers?
suppliers direct access to real time information about
their customers’ energy usage patterns. Information
Ewen Rose talks to the experts
is power, but the key is what is to be done with that
information.
W
ith the UK government pledging to put Energy suppliers are taking on the formidable task
a smart meter in every home by 2020, of fitting smart meters throughout the building stock.
energy consumption is about to become When the country moved over to natural gas from town
more of an exact science. These meters gas in the late 1960s and early 1970s, engineers had
have been prevalent in a number of European countries to visit 13 million homes. Fitting smart meters will
for years, while Britain’s own energy suppliers have require visits to 25 million.
spotted the security and commercial benefit to them Yet the task in the commercial field is arguably even
in having direct access to customer consumption. more challenging. To have any hope of targeting energy
But, whatever the motivation, the fact is that we will savings in commercial buildings, particularly those
soon have the ability to measure and monitor energy with multiple tenants, the owner needs to have a clear
consumption far more effectively. idea of where the bulk of his increasingly expensive
36 CIBSE Journal December 2009 www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEdec09_pp36-38_meters.indd 36 19/11/09 16:31:26
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