by Shane Henson — August 17, 2012—Facilities managers now have an easy way to determine how much of their buildings’ energy costs comes from HVAC use through Incenergy’s new Cost of Cooling Reports software feature that comes as part of the company’s wireless energy management system.
Incenergy, a Texas-based smart building solutions provider, says the software was needed because isolating the energy costs associated with heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) use has long been a problem for commercial building facilities managers. HVAC units often don’t have a dedicated electricity meter, but instead share meters with a wide variety of other devices. Without the ability to separate the cost of cooling from other parts of their utility bill, most facilities managers have been unable to quantify HVAC-related energy use and savings, the company says.
“The inability to break down energy use causes hesitation in many facility managers’ decision making processes,” explains Barry McConachie, CEO of Incenergy. “Our Cost of Cooling Reports add to an entire suite of features that our wireless energy management system provides, giving managers both the tools to reduce their energy use and the visibility they’ve been asking for to make informed decisions.”
Incenergy tracks and reports which of a facility’s units are running, then creates heat and cool run time in addition to Cost of Cooling Reports for each individual HVAC unit. HVAC run time and cost per thermostat can be viewed over a specified date range, and thermostats can be compared to find units that are wasting energy because they are in need of maintenance or replacement.
