Unless you have a building management system (BMS), you will need to locate your energy meter(s). You may have more than one meter for different energy sources (i.e., electricity and gas). The location of your meter(s) will be dependent on your site. If your building is modern, it is more likely to have a logbook with details of the meter’s location. If you cannot locate the meter(s), contact your energy provider.

Losing energy meters is surprisingly common, so a good starting point for larger, more complex sites is to create a map of your meters. Annotate a simple map of your site to record where meters are located, you could even use the site map you created for your site walk-around. Pay particular attention to:

• Where the meter is located
• What resource (electricity, gas, oil) it is measuring
• What the identifying reference number is
• How often it is to be read (if not automatic)
• Who is responsible for reading the meter

Businesses typically have one of the five meter types shown below: 

Mechanical (standard) meter: This meter is a very common type of meter. It shows a row of numbers (usually in black) and has a red box at the end. When taking the meter reading, include any zeros at the front but disregard the number(s) in the red box.

Mechanical dial meter: This meter has several dials that are read from left (10,000kWh) to right (1kWh). To take meter reading, take the number from each dial, including any dials which point to zero and disregard the red dial. If one of the pointers lands between two digits, write down the lower digit (except if the dial is between zero and nine- in this case, write down nine). For example, the reading below would be 34,823kWh.

Electronic digital meter: This meter simply shows a single line of numbers. Write these down from left to right, including any zeros at the front of the row

Multi-rate meter: This meter allows you to see the different energy rates. For example, you can see the difference between your normal, day-time rates and lower-cost, night-time rates.

Smart meter: This meter is a device that provides detailed information on your energy use to your supplier.  If you have a ‘smart’ or ‘half-hourly’ meter, your readings will be automatically submitted to your energy supplier. In this case, you should be able to access up-to-date information on your consumption rates through your energy supplier’s website.

Once you have located your meter and determined its type, be sure to note what units your meter is measuring energy in. This will typically be in:

• Kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity
• kWh, cubic meters (m³) or cubic feet (ft³) for gas

Consider contacting your energy provider for more detailed guidance on your meter type and how to read it. Your meter(s) will have a unique identification code. In the UK the identification code for electricity meters is known as a Meter Point Administration Number (‘MPAN’), and in the US it is known as Material Serial Numbers (‘MSN’). In both countries gas meters will have a Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN). You should check these codes against your energy bill. Different countries will have different names for these identification codes, so do check what this is in your location.

It is recommended that meter readings are taken frequently, at least every week, possibly every day. It is also important to take readings during periods of shut-down or building closure as this can help your business detect unwanted overnight usage. To accurately understand overnight usage, take a meter reading after everyone has left in the evening and right before everyone arrives the following morning. The more often you check your meter readings, the easier it will be for you to identify energy hot-spots and areas that are fluctuating in the short term. It also allows you to identify opportunities for improvement.

Once you have your meter readings, you can record them in the Measuring and Monitoring Spreadsheet. You can download this spreadsheet below. 

Your energy bills are likely held by your finance or accounts team. Financial information can help track energy costs monthly or quarterly and helps you to calculate savings coming from improvement implementations. It can also help you to estimate the cost of inaction (doing nothing to improve your energy efficiency). In order to obtain management commitment, try presenting this information in a clear and simple way. Use the information to demonstrate payback on any investments made, whether that be through capital or staff time. Try to get in the habit of comparing the meter readings on your bills to your won meter readings as there can be instances where bills are incorrect.

Keep in mind the following:

• Understand which figures relate to your consumption. In most cases, you will also have fixed daily rates that will be charged regardless of your energy consumption.
  
  
• Double-check if your charges are related to your actual (A) or estimated (E) consumption. The letter beside your energy consumption figure will let you know.
  
  
• Check the period of the information (this could be be monthly, quarterly, or annually)
  
  
• Be mindful about looking solely at financial information- changes in prices may mask changes in energy usage so make sure to also look at your meter readings.
  
  
• Look for differences in energy prices based on peak and off-peak rates.

Remember that you can call your provider or visit their website for advice on how to read your bills.

Understand how you are charged for energy. There are four main charge elements that apply to most sites and will comprise your bill:

• Electricity and/or gas supply: This will include the estimated or actual number of units used (units may be different depending on fuel), the price of those units (i.e., £/kWh), and the total cost of the energy used. Be aware of peak and off-peak rates that change the cost depending on when the energy was used. These charges should be itemized for each meter.
  
  
• Standing charge: This is the amount that will be charged by the energy provider to account for the cost of supplying and reading energy meters.
  
  
• Taxes/levies: Taxes are often applied to energy used by commercial and industrial properties (check your local energy taxes). You can lower these costs by using less energy.
  
  
• Capacity charge: Gas supplies will often have a charge associated with the size of the pipe supplying the site. If the use of the building or site has changed then the pipe may be much larger than is now required and this can lead to a significant charge being incurred unnecessarily.

Direct measurement of your energy can be useful if you are looking to measure usage related to an individual production line or activity (e.g., plug loads such as a printer or computers). This measurement can be accomplished by using a clip-on or plug-in electricity meter or a clip-on heat meter. Small plug-in meters are appropriate for use with equipment such as computers and fans and are easily available for a small cost. Equipment that can measure instantaneous power to a unit is typically more costly but can be rented rather than purchased. In-line heating meters can also be used to measure the energy that heats your facility; however, these can also be expensive to implement as they require modifications to existing pipework.

If you are using alternative fuels in your facility (i.e., oil, diesel, biofuels, etc.), efforts should be made to measure the quantities consumed on a regular basis (e.g., every day for a week). You can generally measure your consumption of these fuels by the amount purchased (via purchase records). However, if you wish to collect more accurate consumption data over shorter period of time, consider the following:

• Fit tanks with calibrated electronic level meters or load cells
• Mark transparent containers such as intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) to indicate fixed intervals
• When using dipsticks, make sure they are straight and correctly calibrated.

In an ideal world, we would all monitor our energy usage on a continuous basis. Although it is important to take regular meter readings initially to map your baseline and understand your energy consumption, it may be more practical long-term to take occasional meter readings and make estimates for missing information. 

The practice of data sampling involves collecting meter readings and scaling them up to give an estimated total for a longer time period or a larger area. Consider the following when data sampling:

• Try to incorporate as many meter readings as possible over as a longer time period.
• Ensure readings are taken over a representative time period (i.e., over a whole day, shift, production period, etc.).
• Make note of any assumptions when scaling up data values (i.e., 250 workdays vs. 365 days in a year).
• Provide as much detail as possible in your initial readings as this can greatly affect the accuracy of the information around which you will base your assumptions at a later stage.
• Continue to collect meter readings as frequently as possible to monitor fluctuations in consumption.
• Note down external conditions that can affect consumption (i.e., exceptionally hot days that necessitate more cooling functions).

Attempt to obtain manufacturing information about the energy consumption of individual appliances. This information can often be found in manufacturers’ brochures but be sure to select the correct make and model for the most accurate information. You can also check the appliance itself for a label.

This information will be given in watts (W) or kilowatts (kW). This information can be used to estimate the energy used by your specific appliance. For example, a commercial washing machine may have a power rating of 8 kWh. Multiply this rating by the number of hours the appliance is in use (e.g., 8 hours a day). This will give you an estimate of the energy used by the appliance for your chosen time period - in this case, 64 kWh.

Consumption goes up and down over the course of a day as work starts and finishes, or as lunch breaks are taken. It also varies over weeks and months as heating and cooling demands change or as production and working levels vary. It is important to understand how costs and consumption vary over time. This can be a useful indicator to predict what your costs will be if you expect production to change and it can also be an important and valuable indicator if things go wrong but aren’t obvious. This can include water or compressed air leaks, or heating or cooling settings being changed, meaning that a building might be accidentally heated or cooled through the night when closed.

Identify an appropriate factor to compare meter readings against. This could be:

• Number of working days
• Number of tons of product produced
• Number of production days

Note that if the products being produced change, then the energy and resource requirements per ton of the product may also change.

You can compare your organization's energy consumption against business activities in the Measuring and Monitoring Spreadsheet. The business activity is included in this spreadsheet in the 'KPI' columns. You can enter values such as those listed above in these columns (e.g. number of working days), and you will be able to see your usage per KPI, i.e., the kWh of electricity used per number of working days.