Metering

One of the biggest challenges to improving the environmental performance of buildings is the lack of accurate and timely data. Property owners and occupiers are largely unaware of the environmental performance of the building they own or occupy and more importantly the environmental impacts of their building on a daily basis.

To measure utilities consumption within commercial buildings, better metering is the most effective solution. It provides more timely, accurate and detailed information of when and where energy (or water) is being used in a building. Traditionally consumption data has only been accessible through monthly or quarterly bills from the utility company. Better metering systems allow data to be assessed at a much greater level of granularity and provide consumption profiles over time (e.g. half-hourly profiles over the course of a week) at a whole/part building or system level. Benefits include understanding the potential for energy, cost and CO2 savings, as well as the provision of data to support corporate reporting and compliance with increasing environmental legislation such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, ESOS, EPCs and DECs.

Our members are actively investing in the installation of better metering systems throughout their portfolios and there is growing awareness across the industry of the need for such systems and the benefits they can bring. However, confusion can arise with numerous meter suppliers offering different metering packages and options.

Our Work

We have produced the BBP Better Metering Toolkit to help decision-makers gain a greater understanding of better energy metering systems and inform them of the choices available in procuring and installing such systems.

The Metering Toolkit provides a step-by-step approach to better metering and guidance on:

  • The benefits of better metering.
  • Different types of metering and options available for the installation of better metering
  • How to choose a better metering system.
  • Techniques for analysing and managing energy performance

The toolkit also details a number of metering case studies from BBP members, these can also be found in Our Resources.