There are several ways to collect measurement values from your buildings. At the same time, different meters may have various owners. The property owner owns some meters, and others can be held, for example, by the municipality or the district heating supplier. Many different rules and regulations make it challenging to influence which meter is placed on your property.
Collecting this building data raises several questions, but managing and keeping statistics on values from meters shouldn't be difficult. As a Kiona customer or partner, you have several ways to collect data – so that you are ready for any scenario and variant of meter on the market.
Kiona fact
Here are the most common practices for collecting measured values from meters
Manual reading and enrollment
Manual reading is a standard method still used by many, where you write off meter readings in, for example, an Excel sheet. Afterward, you need to manually enter these numbers in the system that you use for your energy monitoring.
When working this way, you should be aware that the risk of human error is high, like entering the wrong number somewhere. The consumption also reflects the time when the reading takes place, and it can easily be many hours spent going around buildings and noting meter readings.
What about analog equipment?
Still, many meters on the market have no communication and thus are entirely analog. These meters are not possible to connect and must be read manually. Collecting data from these old-school meters can be made smoother by logging them with digital tools, like an app on your phone or tablet.
- Get the Energinet Go mobile app for manual meter readings. With the app, you can manually read the meter and directly enter the figures on your mobile. In the app, you have assigned collection responsibility, timespan for when to read the meter, and meter position to make the collection round more manageable and time effective. The app also helps you prevent erroneous readings.
- You can also print a QR code for a specific meter and attach it to it. You can then scan the code and enter the numbers that you read. Scan and record in a flash.
Imports from the utility companies
If you have connected meters, you have greater opportunities to work digitally. A common way of working is gathering consumption statistics from your utility company.
We help to integrate and retrieve utility data directly from your supplier, usually in the form of 15-minute or hourly values, so that you don't have to log in manually and retrieve values to get your statistics. Get data via Elhub, DataHub, API, SFTP, or files sent by e-mail. Use any of our many existing import formats or set up your own import format with the format generator.
Automatic meter collection
With hardware and Energinet, we can collect data directly from connectable meters that communicate with HAN, M-bus, or Wireless M-bus (wM-bus). A connected meter means more than just consumption statistics. In addition, we can get data such as flow, temperatures, and instantaneous power – creating a digital process with high-resolution measurement values and a lot of data.
All our solutions collect data from many different brands of meters on the market, such as Carlo Gavazzi, B meters, Kamstrup, Sontex, and Diehl. And with our powerful energy management and analysis solution, Energinet, there is no limit on what kind of data can be collected and made useful.
Data collection – the right way
Regardless of which method you prefer to follow up and collect measured values, you can use all these methods in parallel and have your data structured in one place through our solutions. No more Excel files or missed or incorrect readings.
Measured values are visualized in the form of clear graphs and diagrams. This way, you can also use the data to get results on your energy and efficiency measures – quickly, cost-efficiently, and accurately.
Want to know more about how you can improve your data collection?