Quantify and Qualify Power and Energy Usage For Your School

Schools strive to create comfortable and friendly learning environments for students to receive the education they need to become successful adults. A poor indoor environment can be a major hindrance to that goal. At the same time, energy efficiency and overhead costs require careful management.

When maintaining a school building or designing the mechanical and electrical systems of the building, it can help monitor the power usage in the entire building. Understanding the power and energy usage of the building provides several benefits. It allows technicians to understand if equipment is functioning efficiently or if there is some type of problem that could indicate system failure.

Project managers and engineers also need to understand how equipment systems are drawing in power. They can determine whether systems are outdated when the equipment is using too much power that becomes wasted. The engineer or project manager can then implement updates and equipment retrofits to make school mechanical systems operate optimally. These updates may also lower power consumption and help save on costs, so energy expenses don't go over the school's budget.

Here are a few more specific solutions that can help qualify and quantify energy and power usage for schools.

Sub-Metering

While the school building will already have electrical meters on the main power supply, sub-metering allows you to figure out if there are certain areas of the building or equipment that is using more power than normal. Sub-metering products such as the Enercept Flex E20 series of compact power and energy meters can help you monitor sub-panels for equipment, which may undergo retrofitting to measure and monitor their energy usage. These devices are small enough to fit on panels where there is limited space as they don't require any external mounting. You'll be able to monitor loads from 50A to 5000A as it can be used for measuring duct static pressure, filter status, airflow, and building pressure.

Multi-Circuit Monitoring

When you are looking to monitor multiple systems at once, such as lighting, heating, and cooling systems, you can use multi-circuit monitoring solutions. These products, such as the E3X Series of power metering products, allow you to monitor several panel boards and RPPs at one time. You can use the monitors to gain information about equipment when you are looking to balance electrical loads or replace certain aspects of your electrical infrastructure.

Main Panel and Single Circuit Power Metering

For monitoring the main panel, such as the circuit breaker box, or a single circuit power outlet for a single piece of equipment, the main panel and single power metering solutions can allow you to evaluate energy and power usage in a more centralized location. You can evaluate and monitor all devices drawing power loads from the main panel using the E5X Series power meters, while the ethernet-enabled E7X Series of advanced power meters offer accurate three-phase electrical monitoring of a circuit. Both products provide high reliability and accuracy to figure out how much load the school's equipment and systems are pulling from the main power line.

Monitoring Your School's Power Usage

School districts are under a lot of pressure to cut back on building costs without making the environment detrimental to the students or staff. You can install monitoring and meter devices on main circuit panels and subpanels to make significant improvements to equipment and mechanical systems. Shop now.