Submetering for LEED Certification in New & Existing Buildings

In late 2006, USGBC and the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) signed a memo of intent to jointly "promote energy efficiency and environmentally responsible building operations and maintenance practices."

Unfortunately, the level of profiling needed to measure and verify compliance with this objective is unobtainable using the standard utility meter found at the main electrical service entrance. That's why, increasingly, facilities are using submeters as first-level data-gathering tools to literally save thousands of dollars in reduced energy costs. First introduced in the early 1980's, submeters are metering devices with monitoring capability that are installed on the user side of the master meter to provide any or all of the following:

• Usage analysis and peak demand identification
• Time-of-use metering of electricity, gas, water, steam, BTUs and other energy sources
• Cost allocation for tenant billing
• Measurement, verification and benchmarking for energy initiatives, including EPACT/EISA and LEED
• Load Comparisons
• Threshold alarming and notification
• Multi-site load aggregation and real-time historical monitoring of energy consumption patterns for negotiating lower energy rates.

Submetering for LEED Certification points

The table below outlines the areas that may be facilitated through the use of submetering equipment, including Water Efficiency (WE) and Energy & Atmosphere (EA) credit categories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advanced submeters like E-Mon's Green Class provide a scrolling LCD display of CO2 emissions, kWh and other sophisticated energy measurements that can help users gain green facility certification points under the LEED rating system.

Bottom Line

Recent industry studies show that green buildings are rapidly becoming a pervasive corporate trend, and that more than 60% of people surveyed agree that green buildings do in fact lower facility operating costs. As sustainable facility practices continue to gain traction, the need will only increase for advanced submetering and automatic meter reading (AMR) solutions that will play an expanding role in satisfying the profiling needs of today and tomorrow's energy monitoring and management platforms.

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