Setra Blog

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) believe it or not will make just about any HVAC professional's job easier. Aerial photography became extremely useful to contractors when progress ofhttp://blog.setra.com/gis-can-make-hvac-jobs-easier/2014/10/02 projects could be shown through pictures. Eventually other job functions caught onto this resource that had been available for years. 

Starting this Wednesday thousands of people will travel from all over the world to attend the 2014 World Energy Engineering Congress at the Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. Several members of the Setra team will be among others at the conference presenting energy management solutions to attendees, such as the Power Patrol Meter. Each day of WEEC incorporates different tracks that attendees can follow based on their energy interests.

Have you ever wondered why AC units can't produce consistent airflow? Or even what's the root of system inefficiencies? One of the main causes is that a monitoring solution isn't in place or isn't working properly.

Looking for new ways to increase your profits? Think outside the box, actually think inside the box, the electrical box that is… Electricity often amounts to a large portion of your overhead cost and can often be managed.

Depending on your industry these can be managed through:

• Staggering machining operations
• Shutting off lights
• Many other measures

By not owning a smart meter, you could be loosing money in two ways. The first way is quiet obvious, where you'd be paying inaccurate electricity bills. Meters don't give proper estimates, whereas smart meters break down precise usage. The second way is that if installation of a meter is refused, you could be subject to fines. Although this idea is only for American Electric Power Ohio customers, other areas of the country could adopt this policy in the future. For this company and many others, maintaining these outdated meters could be become exponentially expensive. Lack of interest and enthusiasm in smart meters result from not knowing how diverse and beneficial the applications are.

Your HVAC system is typically the largest consumer of energy in your building and also one of your most “high profile”. When your HVAC system malfunctions the facility manager and building owners quickly hear about it from the people in the building. Whether it is in a hospital, school, or office building; when people are uncomfortable they complain about it.

With smart meter demand rising, price points still don't seem to be budging from its premium peak. Many don't realize that with an energy management program in place, the return outweigh the costs. Finding a budget is the first obstacle that needs to be tackled when looking into this expensive solution.

The future looks bright for both smart meters and smart grid. The market is projected to grow around $5 billion into 2020. Although this has regulators worried about policies that are in place for consumers, there are a lot of positive trends that root from these smart grid applications.

Did your state make the list of top 15 smart grid deployers? Does your community implement or require smart grids or meters? Many states are taking advantage of the benefits that they can provide including getting a more accurate reading on energy usage and tracking where wasted energy is occurring.

The HeadStart software is used with the Setra Power Patrol meter. This windows based utility allows you to easily configure the meter prior to field installation by powering the device via USB port or checking real-time values before leaving the job site. This tutorial will take you through the HeadStart installation introduction, meter setup tab, communications setup tab, real-time values tab, read/write registers tab, and firmware tab.