JARGON BUSTING

Acronyms and terminology are used throughout the HVAC and energy industry, often leading to misunderstandings. Here we offer some insight to a few of them…

AMR – Automatic Meter Reading

This is the term applied to the automatic reading of consumption data from metering devices such as water, gas, electricity and heat and the transfer of that data to a central database for billing analysis and energy management.

A network of meters is established through communication networks (TCPIP, MSTP, RS485, RS232) and protocols (Modbus, M-Bus), to arrive at a central point of data aggregation. This data can then either be used in its raw form by energy managers (CSV files) or collected by intelligent metering software applications like aM&T platforms.

aM&T – Automatic Monitoring and Targeting

This is a software platform and management system that automatically collects energy consumption data and analyses this to ensure energy use is in line with targets set by the user. Energy data can be directly collected from utility providers’ data collection and aggregator services, or direct from site installed AMR systems. aM&T automatically delivers usable energy management information to the person who can make changes.

Most aM&T systems allow the user to set targets for energy use and review current performance against these targets. Many systems automatically produce variation reports and notify users of potential problems by email or text message.

Today many systems are web based and can be extended to cover consumption of other utilities in addition to the traditional electricity and gas use eg: water, fuel, oil, steam. Typically the application of aM&T can lead to savings of around 5%, although often even greater savings can be enjoyed on individual sites. Many users are instantly surprised at the level of avoidable energy waste that they identify.

How can ABEC help?

We can deliver the turnkey requirements to achieve these outcomes, at site level and through our technical support centre services.

Get in touch

Don’t forget, if you have a particular technical challenge, or there’s something you’d like to know, just drop us a line at bulletin@abec.co.uk. We could be featuring you in our next blog post.