Energy Measurement System For Heating And Cooling Systems In Large Buildings

Many of today’s modern building tenants pay heating and cooling charges based on their square foot allocation as percentage of the total building. As energy costs increased in the recent past, customers decided to invest in an energy measurement system to track their usage of cooling and heating water and provide measurement results to the building owners to negotiate a "Pay Per Use" energy contract.

One particular customer is a personal Finance and Business Financial Services company and like any business, they are also subject to rising energy costs as part of their normal operation. It became evident to the customer that paying for heating and cooling based on actual usage makes good financial sense.

A thermal fluid mixture of 80% water and 20% glycol is delivered to the building’s tenant’s air handling systems at approximately 45°F where it passes trough a heat exchanger that allows the warm air in the offices to cool down and exhaust back to the office space for a comfortable working environment. The cool supply line and the warmer return line were both made of carbon steel 3 inch nominal bore schedule 40 pipe. The typical delta temperature varied between 7 to 10°F and the flow rate ranged from 0 GPM on the week-end to more than 60 GPM on the hottest summer days.