Monitoring electricity usage in a School

Bannerman1969

Hi. I work in a large primary school and the most recent bill was astronomical. In attempt to reduce costs we are looking to install some type of monitor to get the live and historic usage for the School to see where we can cut back. Will also be shopping around suppliers once we know our usage patterns. We will also be applying for a Government backed solar install in due course and also will start to switch out our lighting to be more efficient.

Can any of you experts recommend a monitor which can be easily set up and also which will give me the data on my mobile phone / PC.

I have a Zappi and eddi at home and I like the myenergi information and app so something similar would be great. Thanks

SD_DRACULA

Something like https://www.shelly.com/en/products/shop/shelly-pro-3em-120a will allow you to monitor 3 separate circuits, just add more of these devices if you want to monitor more than that.

You should be able to use the shelly app to monitor remotely.

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121794327#Comment_121794327

Just to add that it would be advisable to get an electrician to fit as the shelly needs a power source.

Bannerman1969

Fair play. Looks ideal.

Thanks very much.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121794549#Comment_121794549

Oh yes very much so, and the CT clamps need to go around the live wires of the circuits that are to be measured so a qualified electrician for sure.

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058337111/monitoring-electricity-usage-in-a-school

Fair plag, good journey to statt. In general, if it's heating or generating heat it's using a lot of electricity. In a home context its a tumble dryer, washing machine and dishwasher when heating the water. Shower. Electric rads.... So you can guess the equivalent in a school which will be different appliances of course.

Old tower PCs use a lot of energy. They spit out a lot of heat = higher energy usage. Laptops use much less. Old projectors might use a lot too. No idea about digital white boards.

Gamify it! See can the student help to find the power hogs as part of a 'green team'. Get some 3pin plugs that measures the power usage. TPLINK TAPO P110 are good. Make sure to get the ones with energy monitoring.

Will show you power usage on an app. Needs WiFi access for then to work and you likely need to be on the same wifi to see the states. Could do that class by class to generate some interest and make it competitive. Show them energy states now and set a target to reduce by say 5% in month one, then same the following month. Will find the plateau just by turning stuff off.

And with the smart plug you just need to record usage for 1 of each type. Like a projector, or pc. Assuming they are all the same brand and model.

Devices on standby use a low of power, certainly older ones. Check the specialist rooms like computer room, woodworking, gym.. Stuffmight only be used a few hours a week but be powered on 24x7x52 weeks.

Have a look at option to get the lights replaced at no cost. There is at least 1 that offer 'lights as a service'. They replace them with newer low energy ones at no cost but they take a fee of the energy saving per year. Means ye have no upfront cost.

If there is stuff that needs to get powered off, smart plugs can do that on a schedule. Or for computers you can create a scheduled task to run so they would turn off every Fri at say 7pm. Might be needed computer by computer unless they are managed centrally.

And get the free rooftop solar as you say.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058337111/monitoring-electricity-usage-in-a-school

I work in industry, electricity costs have dropped dramatically the last 6 months. Before looking at usage I'd look at your rates as that is likely the lowest hanging fruit with the greatest gain. Talk to an agent at the very least

the_amazing_raisin

Might be worth taking a look at the Open Energy Monitor as well

https://openenergymonitor.org/

Probably a bit more setup needed than others but if you're computer savvy you can do a lot with it, and can have multiple monitors on different circuits

One potential consideration is GDPR compliance, electricity usage is in theory a way of tracking people's habits and witn children involved I imagine the Department of Education has some rules on what data can be collected in schools

The Open Energy Monitor can record to a local DB so you don't have to deal with 3rd party agreements and can keep the data on-site

KildareP

Have used OWL energy monitors in the past for this purpose. You will need to buy several of them (and more than likely will need to be 3-phase) as putting them on the main incomer only will tell you absolutely nothing that your electricity bill isn't already telling you. You need to identify which circuits are pulling the power, and then start to narrow down what's on those circuits actually drawing the power.

Before you go to the expense of doing that though, do a thorough walkaround first, they can be very telling.

Culprit number 1 should be electric heaters in the classroom - a lot of schools have naturally tried to cut down on oil/gas usage by running the heating less which then leads to teachers bringing in their own electric heaters to make up for the reduction in heating. Resistive heating from electricity is far more expensive than from oil/gas so you may have to revisit your central heating timings if teachers are indeed complaining the rooms are too cold.

Culprit number 2 is computer labs. Have the machines turn off monitors after 15 minutes, have the whole thing go to sleep after 30 minutes and have them shut down automatically at the end of the day. An idle computer lab of 30 workstations with the screens staying on - even the newest most efficient ones - can easily draw over 3kW which at commercial rates could be well over €1 in electricity every hour.

Culprit number 3 should be your water system, particularly if yours is heated via electricity. A leaking or dripping tap can cause booster pumps to run near constantly, and if it's a hot tap leaking the immersion will constantly be making up for the lost hot water as well.

After that you're into more low hanging fruit - lighting, projectors, TVs, etc. don't draw enormous amounts of power in the grand scheme of things regardless of age and while LED lighting and laser projectors do tend to use less power, it's not going to come even close to cutting a multiple thousand Euro a month bill in half.

Bannerman1969

Thanks to you all for the many comments. Some great advice given. I have all the bills for last 2 years so plan to go through them over the weekend. Reduction in unit rate will the beginning however I'll be researching all your recommendations. I have no doubt there's massive savings to be had.

Thanks again .

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121797330#Comment_121797330

Ignore the prices on the bills for now as tariffs change. So create an excel and track the usage in kWh instead. The ‘actual’ are the meter read once so are a real reading. Then the ‘customer reading’ is your 2nd best as one of ye phoned it in. Mistrust the ‘estimate’ as that’s just they system guessing usage. So worth between ‘actual’ and ‘customer reading’ (if they exist).

Will be interesting to see the usage over the holidays like summer when you would expect everything to be off. Anything more than 2kWh a day of usage in summer means you’ve still got a lot of stuff unexpectedly powered on. As a comparison an empty house will use 1.5kWh a day (fridge, freezer and other small stuff like modem).