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| Taking Energy Efficiency and Savings to the Next Level Published September 2021 The amount of money spent on energy bills in large facilities is mind-boggling. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (https://www.energy.gov/), commercial buildings use 35% of electricity consumed in the U.S. In fact, it is estimated that about one-third of total non-fixed operating expenses go toward energy use in commercial buildings. Leviton offers a comprehensive system to analyze utility usage to pinpoint high use areas, which can then allow building owners and managers to address these energy guzzlers. Recently the Leviton VerifEye™ Building Management Online (BMO) was moved up to the highest level of scalability and reliability with the rollout of the “BMO 4.0” version. The VerifEye BMO software suite is a comprehensive line of leading-edge submetering solutions that provides all the tools for building owners and managers to maximize their facilities’ energy efficiency and optimize equipment and electrical performance through submetering reporting and analysis. This system provides insight into electrical usage, which in turn, identifies hot spots or excessive usage areas which can then be further studied to mitigate use, resulting in savings in utility costs.  The VerifEye BMO reporting feature takes data from a variety of sources, mainly submeters downstream from the building’s main utility meter. Reports are generated to enable detailed analysis down to each individual circuit, with this information facility managers can easily identify and address opportunities to increase efficiency and save money. Only one BMO account is needed per organization, no matter how many utility meters are located on or in the buildings. It can even address an entire global campus of facilities and can drill down to individual circuits in one building. The more granular the submetering, the more consumption analysis can be provided, which could result in more savings.The new VerifEye BMO 4.0 version is an open platform now hosted on secure cloud servers, which means it will give users unlimited capacity and guaranteed uptime. All of the Leviton VerifEye hardware uses standard communications protocols so it can coordinate with all other building management and automation systems. The potential to reduce energy consumption is enormous. On average, 30% of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to cost savings, reducing energy consumption also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. “A building manager would only have to find a very small percentage of improvement to more than offset the cost of the verifEye submetering system, which in the long run would add up to large annual savings, as well as contributing to sustainability,” notes Leviton’s BMO product manager, Tim Law. Have it Your Way
The new and improved BMO 4.0 now has all the functionality needed for every type of report and analysis that a building manager would want in three components – the base module, advanced reporting module and tenant billing. The base module provides comprehensive reporting data and a user-friendly dashboard. The reports can be displayed in the most common graphical formats – table, graphs or energy cards. The core data shows the consumption and demand for whole building energy sources including electric, gas or even steam. Users can configure their system to easily report on aggregated end-use energy loads such as lighting, HVAC, plug loads and other equipment fulfilling the common code compliance requirements for disaggregation. To remain consistent with our typical terminology, we refer to the three module options as: base, advanced reporting, and tenant billing. Code compliance reporting is not well defined. In some areas, the requirements are fulfilled in the base module. However, some jurisdictions require a public display, which may lead to selecting the advanced reporting option to utilize the kiosk display. In cases that need to meet and fulfill code compliance requirements, the advanced reporting module allows stakeholders to quickly review energy usage and cost data, specific to their facilities and portfolios. These reports can compare different areas as well as drilling down and finding hot spots that need to be further reviewed. In fact, large facilities or campuses could be broken out into different departments or divisions to focus in on one area to improve. This module also provides a kiosk option that can be customized. This runs independently of the rest of the reporting tool and even has its own URL to easily cast the display to a public monitor. Whereas the base module can provide reports, the advanced module can take that data and reconfigure it to do more elaborate presentations by allowing customization through freeform tools, not available on the base module. In the advanced module, there are some pre-configured reports such as the heat map and drift analysis. Those tools are designed for energy managers looking for hot spots or unusually high or reporting excessive usage in off times. For example, if someone in a big facility is looking for more detail, such as excessive HVAC systems or lighting, being used in areas in off-peak hours, those advanced reporting tools are priceless. The third module was developed specifically for tenant billing used by property managers and multi-unit property operators. This allows apartment complexes to create their own invoice for each tenant. Multi-dwelling unit energy is highly regulated so it’s important to have a tool like VerifEye that conforms to the specific rate structure. For more comprehensive information on Leviton’s BMO system and specifically on the different modules and how you can start saving today, go to: visit Leviton.com/BMO and Leviton.com/verifEye Previous Article |
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