William Edwards Deming once said, “Management is not playing games; management is prediction”. This quote, describes perfectly, a vital aspect in the goal to manage your energy consumption and, by managing it, reduce it. The ability to understand your energy consumption, and then be able to predict future usage, is absolutely necessary, if you wish to reach your goals.
What is it?
Vitality Energy has a feature that makes the process of prediction a lot easier, and a lot more clear. You can, just observe your historical data, crunch all of the numbers, and come to your own conclusions. However, Vitality’s Energy Prediction Feature does all of that for you. David Ogilvy has a quote that I think fits perfectly with why a software like this is needed; “If you ever find a man who is better than you are – hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you would pay yourself.” How does this relate to this software? This software is not prone to human error. It does not get headaches, or the flu, or whatever other affliction you can attribute to the human condition. Being able to count on something day in, and day out, allows a company to focus on other parts of the energy that need attention.
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How does it work?
How does the software actually predict? Well, without getting into the math and technical things, lets talk about the concepts behind the Prediction Feature. First, the prediction feature uses historical data generated by your meters. You cannot know the way forward without knowing where you came from. The longer you have metering data, the better your Energy Baseline will be. Having an accurate baseline is essential, because the software will take that baseline, and, considering all of the variables such as weather, time of year, activities within the building, comfort of the occupants, etc. and predict what your consumption will be on a given day.
Why do we need it?
Implementing a lighting retrofit, changing people’s behavior, installing batteries, or whatever other type of ECM you need to implement, you need to be able to predict future energy consumption. You need to be able to predict what your energy consumption will be without an ECM, and then what it will be with an ECM. This will allow you to determine the ROI of any particular ECM, thus giving you the capacity to know if an ECM is worth your time or not.
Understanding
The reality of it is, prediction comes from true understanding, which, in energy management, you gain through metering and learning your buildings unique profile. A good Energy Manager can do wonders with Vitality’s Energy Prediction Feature. Reducing your Energy Consumption, thereby saving money and preserving the environment, are responsibilities that we have and can fulfill using the appropriate tools and knowledge.
