With the current buzz surrounding ‘smart metering’ the emphasis on using measurement as a primary tool for energy and carbon reduction has tended to shift towards buildings and the commercial/retail sector. In fact, it was the manufacturing industry that recognised the impact that a sub-metering system could make on productivity years before the phrase ‘smart meter’ had been coined, and the sector is continuing to reap the benefits.
The automatic sub-metering packages that Herts-based specialists Elcomponent are installing today into manufacturing sites, offices, hospitals and universities are descended directly from the systems that they started supplying to their industrial customers over twenty years ago, and they are all the better for it as MD Bill Gysin explains…
The potential savings in manufacturing processes can be huge in financial terms, but tend to be smaller in percentage terms than is the case in commercial buildings. This puts the focus onto accuracy and reliability – the data has to be first class. Decisions surrounding industrial and manufacturing processes are not taken lightly, so it’s important that the information on which they are based is as accurate as possible. The results of a wrong decision are generally a whole lot worse than the office being too cold for a few hours! This was the environment where we learned our craft, so accuracy has always been of paramount importance to us, but it also meant that we developed a product that was designed for industrial energy management from the start.”
Elcomponent’s MeterRing MM system is one of the few end-to-end packages available, offering an integrated solution that includes hardware, network interfacing, software and installation, and all the elements were originally developed for an industrial customer base. Elcomponent’s MD again…
The way that ‘driver’ information is handled by MeterRing MM is a good example. Whilst we have many customers – particularly in the food sector – whose costs are significantly affected by ambient temperature, it is not normally the key energy driver in manufacturing, unlike the average commercial building. That’s why our flexible driver handling software is just as good at integrating output or widgets into energy costings as it is degree days. Another example is the requirement for more detail on electrical performance. Most sub-metering packages don’t understand any electrical unit beyond a kilowatt hour, but because there is often a requirement for ‘engineering’ data in an industrial setting, we measure everything, including harmonic distortion if required. Of course not all our customers need it, but it’s there if they do…”
That’s not to say that system development has all been a one-way street however. Elcomponent’s new ‘Building Energy Display’ which provides an eye-catching ‘Front-of House’ presentation of the energy profile of a building in realtime is also proving a big success in manufacturing. The ability to display process performance in realtime at both shop floor and board room level has long been a way to boost productivity – now it is cutting carbon emissions as well.
Elcomponent are also the UK market leaders in portable data loggers for energy and carbon management, but we don’t just sell and hire data loggers. We have over 25 years’ experience of measuring energy consumption in the field, so we also offer an unrivalled level of support to our customers, large and small. We understand how important simplicity, reliability and ease of use are, and we make sure that all those qualities are built in to our energy monitoring devices from the design stage upwards.
Our SPC range is designed primarily for Energy Managers and the products don’t require any specialist knowledge or technical qualifications to use. We’ve made them as safe and non-invasive as possible, but without compromising the accuracy that Elcomponent’s reputation is built on. The SPC Pro is being sold with a FREE battery pack until the end of the year.
Our Energy Analysers provide a more comprehensive measurement and logging capability including power quality and disturbance analysis for electrical engineers and specialist contractors. They retain our brand values of ease-of-use and outstanding value, but deliver more detailed energy measurement along with a higher level of programmability.
