Ever felt drowsy in a meeting and couldn’t blame the subject matter? It is possible that too much carbon dioxide had built up in the room because the ventilation system wasn’t properly performing. Systems and their settings often get misadjusted, leading to cascading comfort, safety, and costly problems. Before making assumptions and investing in the wrong fixes, we recommend a deeper analysis of the implicated energy systems with sub-metering monitoring equipment. Our M+V Reports put energy data analysis into context which adds depth and documentation to Energy Audits, Commissioning Reports, LEED Certifications, and problem-solving expeditions. M+V is a helpful step to better understand distinct challenges, anomalies, or complaints about how a building operates and how to optimize it.
M&V is the only way to know with confidence that your project performs as designed. Many financial rebates and lenders require projects prove that their dollars made the impact expected. Moreover, LEED Certification requires M+V for compliance and because they know that measuring and documenting energy use M &V is an excellent proving step.
Before your project starts: RBG suggests to monitor equipment and systems prior to replacement and building renovations. Results from data logging can assist a building owner in identifying energy waste (such as equipment run times, lighting use and quality, actual occupancy use, temperature settings and temperature swings, unnecessary plug loads), comfort and indoor air quality problems (such as unexpected or undesired temperature variation, noise, humidity, C02 levels), and other ways that energy may be used and/or wasted. It is always helpful to establish baseline energy use data prior to implementing an energy project so that monitoring and verification proves that the project works as designed and expected.
During your project: Fine-tune systems during the implementation stage to avoid call-backs.
After your project is complete: Ensure that the project works as designed. Often times, comprehensive energy projects take time to optimally integrate with existing and new systems. Monitoring those systems during that sync-up period helps assure project works as a system. Comparing energy use data from before and after the project is a great way to assure yourself, lenders, grantors, and the public that your project works as designed and expected. The best way to accomplish this is through a targeted M & V process.