Enigin Saves Kings Point Retirement Community, Florida, $120,000

As the Kings Point Retirement Community, Florida, watched as energy costs were raised between 10% to 15% annually, there was little else they could do besides dig deep into their own fixed retirement incomes to cover costs of an energy saving initiative that would take them 15 to 20 years to payback; a decision made by Vesta Property Services who were responsible for operations on the site.

Seeing their dilemma, Enigin PLC presented the Kings Point Association with their EnergyMaps program. What began as an experiment that would hopefully gain the confidence of the residents, by giving them viable proof of the site’s energy expenditure, ultimately lead to the ideal answer for the whole community.

With consent from the community the experiment was put in motion. It involved the installation of an Eniscope in the large clubhouse, where most residents spend their time.

The Eniscope allowed the Enigin team to capture relevant data related to how energy was used in the clubhouse, allowing them to determine where, in turn, it could be saved. Once the experiment was concluded, and a full commercial energy audit made, the potential to save energy was brought to light.

A solution was put forward, one that would see a payback period of only 4 years; far better than the 15 to 20 years the community were facing initially. After only 12 months the community saw a reduction of 35% in their annual energy expenditure, a cash savings of $120,000, which also resulted in their 4 year payback period being reduced to only 2 years.

Work Smarter – The truth about ‘smart’ meters

So, is Eniscope a smart meter? No. Is it smart? Very smart. First, let’s look at some of the realities of so-called Smart Meters. You know, in the land of blind, the one-eyed man is king and this certainly applies to the situation with smart meters. In a world where energy is invisible, having partial sight of your consumption has to be better than nothing. However, contrary to popular belief, smart meters were not conceptualized for the benefit of the end-user. They were designed primarily for the benefit of the utility companies to put them in control of your energy consumption.
So, how do they benefit? Well, firstly, a smart meter enables them to read your meter remotely. Now that’s a huge cost-saving. Secondly, it helps them control demand – another cost-saving. Third, it allows them to cut you off remotely if you don’t pay; yet another huge cost-saving. And fourthly, it can be used to change your tariff remotely which helps maximize their revenue. Little wonder that smart meters are installed across the globe. You know, a select group of people are going to get very rich off the back of this rollout program. Yet, despite their clear gearing towards utility companies, smart meters are being marketed as a panacea for energy saving. But are smart meters really that smart? When it comes to energy management? Well, let’s look at the facts.
1. They’re not free. You may not get an invoice but you will pay in increased energy cost. The utility companies are not that generous.
2. The information is not real-time. It is provided in what’s called a “day+1” format which basically means energy you used today you find out about sometime tomorrow. Now, that’s better than the current situation of monthly or even quarterly bills but it’s still not real-time. You won’t be able to make changes and see an immediate effect. Now, some utility companies are trying to get around this by selling you a cheap energy monitor that will display limited real-time information. But because it will only measure one power value, the accuracy can be out by as much as 10%. So, you don’t know if you save 10% or if your meter is just reading incorrectly.
3. You still get only one meter. The information may come quicker but it still comes in one lump sum. Now, in a small house, this might be moderately useful but in the commercial or public building, there’s no way of isolating what it costs in various parts of the building or individual pieces of equipment which is essential for proper energy management.
4.They only measure one parameter – it’s kilowatt hours. Now while it’s useful, it only gives you one piece of the energy management puzzle. It’s like having a physical and the doctor only checks your pulse. Useful, but you might easily miss something important. You need to be aware of all the critical energy parameters like voltage, amps and power factor across all three phases if you want to know what’s really going on.
6.One size fits all. When you’re deploying millions of meters, you can’t stop to check the needs of the customer. You just want to install as many as possible as quickly as possible in any case. As we’ve seen, the real beneficiaries of the smart meter program are the utility companies themselves.

In contrast see the benefits of Eniscope in our previous blog, see below!

Work Smarter – Ensicope

So then, how does this compare to Eniscope’s real-time energy management system?
1. You get a quick payback. Although savings will vary, we’ve had clients save up to 40% using our system and experience a payback in a matter of months. And if you buy on our Pay As You Save Program, your monthly savings can offset the cost of the equipment. From day one.
2. Real-time energy monitoring. Eniscope delivers information by the second so you can see exactly what is happening as it happens. Make a change and you’ll see the immediate effect and benefit. Plus, the information is delivered with precision, better than 1% accuracy which is more accurate than a standard revenue-grade meter.
3. It’s a complete system. Eniscope can be configured to measure all your critical energy points at the level most beneficial to you. That means you can measure buildings, floors, departments, rooms, circuits, even individual pieces of equipment. It’s all readily accessible via your favorite web browser on beautifully designed interfaces and in real-time. Plus, at the click of a button, you can view this granular energy information in our historical analytics portal which will help you to spot trends and anomalies, eliminate wastage and keep track of your improvements.
4. You have total power analysis. Eniscope can measure over 100 energy parameters and it comfortably measures, monitors and records the most critical power values including kilowatt hours, kilowatt demand, 3-phase amps, 3-phase voltage, apparent power, reactive power and power factor. It’s like our system performs a continuous health check on your building, explaining along the way what all of the values mean and what you can do to improve them or prevent a problem before it strikes.
5. We offer you custom configuration. The Eniscope system can be customized to meet your needs. We can collect and display information from other meters on your site like gas and water. We can setup alarms that will automatically turn your equipment off to save energy or avoid peak demand penalties. We can install real-time energy displays to help your building’s occupants make better decisions about how they use your energy. We can fit renewable energy displays to showcase alternative energy projects such as wind turbines or solar panels. We can even help you implement cutting edge load side energy saving products safe in the knowledge that everything we do is complete transparent because Eniscope is tracking the results in real-time.

So, try not to be totally taken in by the “smart meter” hype. Make no mistake, smart meters are here to stay but don’t let anyone blind you as to the real reason behind them. The benefits are stacked heavily in favor of the utilities companies. And while some users may derive limited benefits for the increased visibility of their energy consumption, which is a good thing, smart meters don’t replace good energy management and they can’t come close to the benefits of a real-time energy management system.

So, is Eniscope a smart meter? Absolutely not. Is it smart? There’s no doubt about it.

The Hows and Whats of SEO – Advice from Enigin III

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to success of a businesses online marketing campaign – and the web is vital for Enigin, Enigin Partners and Enigin Distributors.

So, let’s walk through a few steps to understanding and approaching SEO.

The major work needs to be done by the owners of your website’s content, and your search rankings depend on your adhering to a few well-established rules.

Here is the final part…

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The Hows and Whats of SEO – Advice from Enigin II

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to success of a businesses online marketing campaign – and the web is vital for Enigin, Enigin Partners and Enigin Distributors.

So, let’s walk through a few steps to understanding and approaching SEO.

The major work needs to be done by the owners of your website’s content, and your search rankings depend on your adhering to a few well-established rules.

Here is the second part…

More

The Hows and Whats of SEO – Advice from Enigin I

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to success of a businesses online marketing campaign – and the web is vital for Enigin, Enigin Partners and Enigin Distributors.

So, let’s walk through a few steps to understanding and approaching SEO.

The major work needs to be done by the owners of your website’s content, and your search rankings depend on your adhering to a few well-established rules.

More

Enigin Advice – Four Deadly Email Sins

Enigin Distributors need to make sure their marketing meets muster – in other words, it needs to be sharp, spot-on, and professional.

It is the byline for Enigin Plc that all presentations, training and above all else marketing needs to be excellent, not good, or very good, but excellent.

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10 Pointers for Enigin Distributors on Search Enigines II

Local web-presence optimisation is becoming paramount to small businesses. including Enigin Distributors globally – helping them to promote their Enigin energy saving businesses.

To succeed they need to understand how Google can drive awareness and traffic to their location, and they need to recognise the vital role that search-engine results play in their competition against their competition.

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10 Pointers for Enigin Distributors on Search Enigines I

Local web-presence optimisation is becoming paramount to small businesses. including Enigin Distributors globally – helping them to promote their Enigin energy saving businesses.

To succeed they need to understand how Google can drive awareness and traffic to their location, and they need to recognise the vital role that search-engine results play in their competition against their competition.

More

Enigin Advise on how to Stop Communication Overload II

Often people complain about all the useless back-to-back meetings and being copied in on hundreds of unnecessary emails, and it has got even worse.

At Enigin we value communication but communication needs to valuable – so here is advice for Enigin Distributors and Partners who are running their own energy saving businesses.

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