Commercial Buildings
In a mall, hotel, hospital or office block, close to half the electricity goes to cooling. The second problem is apportionment: shared cooling is divided up without ever being measured.
Cooling
What did the same weather cost us last time?
Cooling consumption moves with outdoor temperature, which makes comparing two days on raw kWh misleading. Higher consumption on a hot day is not waste, and lower consumption on a cool day is not an achievement.
The panel stores every day’s consumption alongside that day’s outdoor conditions. Comparison happens between days with similar weather, and only then does the remaining difference come from how the building is run.
- Hourly weather pulled for the specific site
- Days with similar conditions compared with each other
- Deviation attributed to plant, towers and pumps
In a hotel, occupancy enters the model; in a mall, footfall does. That is what turns “why was this month more expensive” into an answer: weather, occupancy or a fault.
Consumption and Weather
daily · 14 daysApportionment
Tenant share should come from meters, not estimates
In most buildings shared cooling is divided by floor area. That puts a shop trading late into the evening and an office that closes at lunchtime in the same bracket, and it produces a dispute every billing period.
Once the feeder lines are metered, the share stops being a matter of opinion. Each tenant sees their own consumption on their own screen and the billing breakdown rests on a measurement record.
- Tenant feeders metered separately
- Common-area share allocated by its own rule
- Monthly tenant report exported as PDF
Metered apportionment does more than settle arguments. Tenants who can see their own consumption change how they behave, and that is the one saving that requires no investment at all.
Shared Cost Split
month end · schematic- July 58 21 cooling dominates
- April 34 24 34 shoulder season
- January 22 29 40 heating season
- Cooling plant
- Common areas
- Tenant feeders
- Other
Quality
Charges become visible before the bill arrives
Power factor problems in commercial buildings usually come from two places: compensation left in circuit overnight, and harmonics produced by variable speed drives. Neither is noticed until the bill lands.
The panel tracks the reactive ratio continuously and warns as the charge threshold approaches, so the compensation setting is corrected before the meter reading closes.
- Inductive and capacitive ratios tracked separately
- Hours inside the charge band are counted
- Warning threshold set per site
The capacitive side is the one most buildings miss. A capacitor bank left in circuit as the night load falls away produces a charge just as real as the daytime one.
Power Factor
main meter · period97.4%
target ≥ 95%
Schematic: power factor derived from period reactive energy. Every hour below the band carries charge exposure.
Pumps
The unseen half of the cooling load
Cooling brings chillers to mind, yet a large share of what reaches the bill comes from the motors around them: condenser water pumps, tower fans, air handling unit fans and circulation pumps.
In most buildings those motors run at fixed speed, the same way every day of the year. When the load halves the pump still turns at full speed, and the difference is waste.
- Pump and fan groups metered separately
- Fixed-speed load compared against part-load hours
- Variable speed investment costed on measured hours
Without that measurement, a variable speed drive project rests on assumptions. Measured, the number of part-load hours is known, payback comes out of real data, and the same file underpins an efficiency grant application.
Tenant Intensity
area × unit consumptionunit consumption kWh/m²·mo
2,4001,8001,5004,2002,100
↔ lettable area m² ↕ unit consumption kWh/m²·mo well above average
Control
Common areas move onto a calendar
In a mall or office block, common-area lighting, signage, car parks and grounds are usually switched by hand. Anything switched by hand is eventually left on.
The remote control module brings those points onto a central calendar. Lighting follows sunset, car park and external lighting drop at closing time, and tenant common areas run to their own trading hours.
- Lighting and signage on the solar calendar
- Tenant common areas on their own hours
- The AI assistant reports the point that drifts
The same discipline applies to billing: in a building with several supply points, every bill is compared against its own measurement record and deviating lines are listed with their reason.
Common-Area Points
live state- Facade lighting 0W Contactor solar
- Car park 3,400W Contactor schedule
- Signage 0W Relay solar
- Escalators 5,200W Contactor schedule
- Water feature 610W Plug manual
- Terrace lighting 74W Relay off but still drawing
3/6 on ·total 9,284 W ·1 drawing while off
Which modules work in a commercial building
| Module | What it does here |
|---|---|
| Chillers and Cooling | System and machine COP, tower approach, part load |
| Power Quality | Power factor, harmonics, voltage events |
| Energy Consumption | Tenant and area breakdown, common-area share |
| Standby Power | Backup readiness and test records in hospitals and hotels |
| Bill Validation | Line-by-line checks across multiple supply points |
| Energy Performance and ISO 50001 | Baseline normalised for weather and occupancy |
| Remote Control | Common-area lighting, signage and car park schedules |
| AI Assistant | Candidate project shortlist, direct answers on deviations |
Separate pages by building type
This page covers the question every commercial building shares: how efficient the cooling plant is and how shared consumption is apportioned. What is specific to each building type has its own page.
- Shopping centres: landlord areas, tenant recharging, footfall-normalised performance
- Hotels and resorts: energy per room-night, kitchens, laundry, pool and spa
- Office buildings: out-of-hours HVAC, floor and tenant metering, scope 2 data
Frequently asked
What did we spend at the same temperature last year?
Consumption is recorded together with outdoor conditions and compared on degree-days. Rather than putting a hot day next to a cool one, days with similar weather are compared.
How is the tenant share calculated?
Shared cooling and common-area consumption are measured, not estimated; the tenant share follows from measured consumption and a defined allocation key. The tenant billing module produces that breakdown in invoice form.
Is a reactive penalty visible before it reaches the bill?
Yes. The power factor is calculated from period energy at the main meter; inductive and capacitive ratios are tracked separately against the limit, with out-of-hours periods separated.
What is the unseen half of the cooling load?
The efficiency on the chiller screen does not count the pumps and the tower. System efficiency is calculated from the whole plant; tower approach and wet-bulb temperature are tracked separately. In a hotel this chart is read together with the occupancy curve.
Does a hotel need occupancy data?
Yes, for the kWh per room-night indicator. Occupancy comes from the property management system and sits next to the energy data; the night base load and the comfort limit are judged against it.
Let us measure what is happening on your site.
In a one-hour call we look at your existing setup and set out exactly which measurement points are needed and what you would be able to see.