by Shane Henson — November 25, 2013—Obvius, an energy solutions provider, announced earlier this week the expansion of its line of AcquiSuite data acquisition servers with its next generation AcquiSuite+ A8814 server.
According to the company, the line-powered A8814 combines all the features and functionality of Obvius’ standalone data acquisition server and additionally includes an onboard revenue-grade power meter and reporting and analytics package. The A8814 is designed to significantly reduce the cost and installation time of multicomponent systems and affords an out-of-the-box solution for measuring and verifying energy usage, from the main building-level to the individual circuit-level.
The A8814 monitors single- and three-phase loads and is easily expandable to support water, gas, steam, and solar photovoltaic monitoring applications to provide a comprehensive snapshot of a facility’s total utility usage. The system’s automated interval data analysis feature identifies areas for energy cost savings. A full-color, smartphone-like LCD touchscreen facilitates setup, commissioning and implementation.
Using ModBus TCP/IP, ModBus RTU, BACnet/IP as well as other protocols, the A8814 also seamlessly integrates with building management systems, building automation systems, supervisory control and data acquisition, and solar photovoltaic systems. Its high degree of granularity and transparency enhances user accountability and drives down the cost of implementing energy-saving programs in virtually any type of facility, Obvius says.
Ideal for installation in commercial, retail and institutional facilities, the A8814 collects and logs data from connected devices on user-specified intervals. The data can be shared with other third-party platforms such as kiosks and other software applications.
Plug-and-play drivers for meters, inverters and other devices as well as firmware updates are included with the system. A software utility, available at no charge, lets users easily transfer the data into a .cvs file format for easy reporting and analysis. Users can also access their data on the company’s hosted solution, which affords unlimited storage capacity at no charge for the first year. The annual fee thereafter is $295, Obvius says.
