The Mini Guide to Meter Selection
Choosing the right meters is tricky. Here are some guidelines to steer you toward success.
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The Mini Guide to Meter Selection
Ever pulled up a product page for electric meters and felt instantly overwhelmed? For something that sounds as straightforward as metering, the options are staggering.
Because every building and every metering project is unique, it's impossible to give blanket recommendations about choosing the right submeter. What we can offer are guidelines to help frame decisions and give you technical specifications that work for most situations.
Recommendation #1: Buy Revenue-Grade Meters
If you take away only one idea from this article, let it be this: Buy revenue-grade meters, for multiple reasons:
- Allocating utility costs
- Billing tenants
- Complying with regulations
- Tracking and optimizing equipment performance
- Sustainability
If your goals involve any of the above, you need the accuracy of revenue-grade meters. There’s simply no comparison in quality and capability. Revenue-grade meters are essential to capturing the caliber of data that can be turned into insight.
Modern digital, revenue-grade meters have higher accuracy (< 0.5% error) than standard or older dial meters. This increase in accuracy accomplishes two goals:
1) It gets you closer to knowing the actual values for consumption.
2) It limits the propagation of errors.
Error propagation might not have been on your radar. But in addition to billing, meter values are used in calculations for key decisions, such as energy conservation measures, ESG reporting, and financial reporting. The larger the error in each reading, the larger the uncertainty in your calculations over time.
Another benefit of revenue-grade meters is that they can retain 30–60+ days of meter data, giving you a backup for the inevitable experiences of data transfer failure/data loss (just be sure you can access it).
Last (but absolutely not least), revenue-grade meters are required if you want to participate in utility rewards and demand-response programs (and billing tenants, just to be crystal clear).
What level of accuracy is "best"? It turns out that even within “revenue-grade,” there are grades of accuracy from 0.5% down to 0.1%. So is “more accurate” always better? Actually, no. It depends on your goals.
What may not benefit from additional accuracy? Some examples include equipment that draws a large load or shorter projects, such as M&V studies and energy audits. In most cases, accuracy becomes more important as loads get smaller.
Recommendation #2: Must-Have Features for Electric Submeters
Here are the features we think apply to pretty much every project:
- Multiple independent, user-defined inputs
- Multiple independent voltage inputs that allow for simultaneous monitoring of multiple systems
- Line powered from 90–600 V, phase-to-phase ANSI, and IEC metering system accuracy, including branch CTs
- Supports solid core, split core, and Ally Rogowski coil CTs
- Meter board features easy access terminals for CT wiring and removable connectors; can easily route cable and view LEDs from any angle
- Reports volts, amps, power, demand, and energy for each circuit
- On-meter display for local (on-site) reading
- Provides multi-phase totals for loads with any combination of 1-, 2-, and 3-pole breaker positions
- Selectable phase orientation and number of circuits
- 5-year warranty
Recommendation #3: Nice-to-Have Features for Electric Submeters
We don't insist on these, but they definitely make your life easier, now and in the future:
- Non-proprietary brand (We always recommend avoiding vendor lock.)
- Ethernet port
- Line-powered
- Demand reset functionality local at the meter
- High-voltage cover for safety
Pricing
We typically say that a good budget estimate for an electric meter and related equipment is $1,200 (for meter, CTs, and voltage connections). However, there’s so much variability in meter models, measurement capabilities, and building needs that it’s impossible to promise even a ballpark figure. In other words, your mileage may vary.
The Recap
Without knowing your site and goals, no one can (or should) make specific recommendations about what meters and related equipment you need.
Here’s our one universal guideline: Determine the goals for the property and the owner’s business model, then design a submetering system from those goals using revenue-grade (preferably non-proprietary) submeters. Such a system will provide value over the lifetime of the building by giving the information needed to recoup more of the actual operating costs, improving budgeting and capital campaigns (because decisions are based on better information), and achieving greater efficiencies of time, money, and energy consumption.
About utiliVisor
Your tenant submetering and energy plant optimization services are an essential part of your operation. You deserve personalized energy insights from a team that knows buildings from the inside out, applies IoT technology and is energized by providing you with accurate data and energy optimization insights. When you need experience, expertise, and service, you need utiliVisor on your side, delivering consistent energy and cost-saving strategies to you. What more can our 40 years of experience and historical data do for you? Call utiliVisor at 212-260-4800 or visit utilivisor.com
