You might be wondering why should you implement an Energy Management software when you can manually gather the energy consumption data from your facilities’ meters and enter them on your own Excel spreadsheet. Maybe you believe that an Energy Management Software is not for your projects, it is expensive, and it wouldn’t add a lot of value to your work…
If you can somewhat relate to the previous statements, this article is just for you. Of course, there are ways to carry out energy management within facilities without the use of an Energy Management software. Many large and respected companies are still basing their energy decisions on data collection manually.
This post won’t back you up on your current ‘software-free’ perceptions though, on the contrary, it will open your eyes to a new reality and all the benefits you are missing out on. What you will find in this well-crafted yet crucial series of articles, are all the reasons why you shouldn’t continue with manual energy data collection.
Since the list of reasons that support the use of an EMS is quite long we have divided this post into 3 parts. In this first part, we will cover 2 factors that will show you how your outdated energy data collection system is making you waste time and money.
1. Time and Productivity: two precious treasures
Whenever you or a designated worker visit the control room to get the energy readings from meters, there is time and effort used. The manual typing of this collected data onto a spreadsheet takes time and is a strenuous and monotonous process that anyone would want to avoid.
The truth is, all this time employed in the recollection and documentation of energy consumption represents a cost for the company. Whether cheap or expensive, it implies a high opportunity cost for the firm since this time could be employed doing things adding more value to the operations of your company.
Aside from the higher value that workers could be adding to your company, they could be using this time to do more fulfilling tasks.
On the other hand, with an energy monitoring solution you have all the information you need on your screen, just a click away. In other words, no more going physically every day or every week to collect these long numbers at control rooms, and better yet, no more spending hours typing them in your excel.
With the use of an EMS, you will be able to analyse your data with all the information broken down into as many categories as you like, easy, right?
All this being said an automatic energy data collection system is an investment that will pay off in many ways.
Even though there is a higher cost associated with it, you will get higher productivity for your workers, due to saved time and better work conditions.
2. Accuracy makes all the difference
Assuming you did not make a mistake when you manually collected the energy meter readings, there is a good chance that you will make one when entering your numbers into the spreadsheet.
When you enter digits that are meaningless on their own into a spreadsheet filled with other digits, there is a good chance that you will enter the wrong number by mistake. That is just the nature of us human beings, we are bound to human error.
Any errors in entering energy data will result in misleading information that will waste time and make all the work done useless.
In addition to this very frustrating point, misleading information will not allow you to make the right energy efficiency decisions, resulting in lost savings opportunities.
With energy management software, you remove the possibility of human error in collecting and viewing data. When you make energy efficiency decisions, you can be sure that they are made based on accurate and reliable information.
The savings you expect to make will not be subject to miscalculation and will therefore be closer to reality.
If these first two reasons are not enough to demonstrate the value of switching from a manual to an automatic energy data collection system, see Part 2.
In the second part of this series, we will cover three more reasons why the answer to your energy efficiency projects is an Energy Management Software. These factors are related to the additional benefits that an energy management solution provides besides automatic data collection.
Go to the second part or try Dexma Energy Management Software free demo here.
