Powersavvy
Powersavvy - Case Studies

Commercial customers case studies

Electricity costs can be significant for your business.  Just like any other cost, to keep it under control is is imperative to understand what is driving it, in order to keep it under control. Our goal is to provide the business with the tools and training required to understand their usage and be able to manage it going forward. This process is achieving typical savings of 20% on electricity costs, some of the details which can be seen in the case studies below.

(click for commercial customer case studies)

Case study 1: Castle Golf Club

The steps we follow involve first of all collecting information on the consumption pattern for the business. We allocate the consumption recorded to various business units in order to generate an understanding of the breakdown of the consumption for the business. In the case of the Castle Golf Club this is shown on the graphics below.

Step 1: Collect raw usage data for the business

Step 2: Analysis of consumption to identify a breakdown of usage

The analysis identified a significant base load. We worked with the golf club to identify what might be driving the base load and help them to put corrective measures in place. The results can be seen in the 2 bills listed below. Consumption dropped from 23,745 units for Nov 2011 to 19,634 units for Nov 2011 (17% reduction), and costs went from €4575 to €3711 for the same period i.e. a saving of €864 per month or 19%.

Bill for November 2011
Bill for December 2012

 

 

Case study 2: Lyons Late and Early Convenience Shop

The online monitor was installed as before and consumption data collected over a period of time. Once sufficient data was collected to capture a business cycle (one week), the consumption data was downloaded and analysed as shown here.

When this data is transferred to a pie chart it becomes clear what is driving the costs. See below.

Once the breakdown is identified, a clearer understanding is obtained of what is driving costs. Some short term tests were then carried out to see what impact they would have on the overall usage levels (with the online monitor in place the impact of different actions is immediately apparent). Once these tests were completed it was clear where the biggest gains could be made and steps were put in place to make those gains long term.  In this case the base load was identified as the biggest single category, which is primarily related to refrigeration.  Changes were made to the refrigeration setup in the premises which led to saving of approximately 20% in usage and costs.

Residential customers case studies

People use electricity in different ways. The usage profile of a family home with young children will be very different from a household with teenage children for example. However one thing that we are finding consistently is that people are wasting energy (and money) unnecessarily as a result of not understanding what is driving their costs. The following are just some examples of where some customers were wasting energy and how they were able to make savings from having availed of the Powersavvy Home Electricity Check.

(click for residential customer case study details)

Case study 1: Leak in water system driving electricity costs

The analysis identified a very high base load which was traced to a problem with this customers water system. A leak had occurred in their water system as a result of which their water pump was running continuously, driving up their electricity usage. Fixing the leak reduced their consumption.

 

Case study 2: Cost of a home office

This customer had electric heating and knew this was going to be a major part of their bill.  However what took them by surprise was their high base load which was as a result of a home office in which alot of equipment was left permanently on unnecessarily and adding considerably to their bill.

 

Case study 3: Incorrect use of electric shower

An electric shower, while a high consumer of electricity when on, is very efficient as it only heats the amount of water required for the shower with no waste.  However when used incorrectly can add significantly to the costs.  Not only can the analysis identify the total cost of the shower but it also identified the number of showers taken in the week and the duration of each shower.

 

Case study 4: Underfloor heating

Electric heating is very convenient and clean from the users perspective - no fumes or ashes to clean out and always available at the push of a switch.  However it is a relatively expensive source of heating and can add considerably to your costs when used incorrectly.  In this instance an underfloor electric heating system was set up incorrectly adding considerably and unnecessarily to their costs.

 

Case study 5: Immersion

Have you ever wondered about whether it is better to leave the immersion on all the time or just turn it on when needed. This analysis will show you exactly how much you are using on your immersion. This home is an example of one that leaves the immersion on all the time showing how much that is costing. It will also calculate how much water that amount of energy will heat for you putting you in a position where you can make decisions on how you want to use your immersion.

 

 

 
Monitor login

Click here to login to your electricity monitor

Commercial customers

For electricity savings in your business or school

Home Electricity Check

For energy savings in the home