Ohio Pen - Utility Monitoring in a School Building

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CLEVELAND - OhioPen -- Universal Input Data Loggers Offer Total Building Solution

As part of an energy study, a school district required a utility monitoring solution in a school building. They needed to present this data in an easy-to-understand dashboard for each wing and as an aggregate total for the entire building. The building also had electric sub-panels for the different areas, but they are separated from the main utility rooms; these needed to be integrated into the dashboards as well to capture the full usage pattern.

Installation

The district outfitted each area's utility room with a dataTaker DT80 Universal Input Data Logger. The DT80 was connected to sensors that captured Chilled Water Flow, Hot Water Flow, and Gas Flow. A key feature of the logger is the universal analog and digital inputs which could measure the signals from the different sensors including 4-20 mA current loops, DC voltage, or pulse signals. The logger also has built-in math functions to allow calculations for scaling and totalization of the different parameters. The DT80 comes with dEX 2 software which provides easy to create, customizable dashboards for the different measurements with displays such as thermometers, digital meters, dial meters, and trend graphs.

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Usage

The customer greatly increased their data accessibility immediately after installing the DT80s and having a visual dashboard for the combined data from the different areas greatly helped the school's administration to closely monitor their utilities. The entire building's usage is recorded with pinpoint accuracy, while the operator is free to view the data in a convenient dashboard display arranged by floor, wing, and aggregate total. Each floor's remote sub-panels are now included. The dataTaker DT80-based solution provided an ideal Utility Monitoring System. The customer has additional options available with this solution for increased monitoring down the road. With a DT80 already on every floor, future expansion to monitor other inputs is easy to accomplish.

Another DT80 could be added to the boiler room to closely monitor this high-energy usage area; this is also ideal for EPA requirements to monitor and track stack emissions. A separate power meter could be installed for submetering to measure just the lighting used in relation to the total electrical load. For a green solution, solar water heaters are one of the most popular new energy-saving devices being considered by schools–the DT80 can easily monitor temperatures inside and out, and also monitor the water flow through the solar panel itself.

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For more information on the DT80 Intelligent Universal Input Data Logger, additional utility monitoring solutions, or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS Data Logger Applications Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or visit us at https://www.dataloggerinc.com.