Energy Monitoring--The State of the Art

Abstract

In the past decade, energy monitoring has become an invaluable part of energy conservation programs. A fully implemented and effective monitoring program provides management with the assurance that all other elements of their energy management program are performing properly and, if not, what actions to take. In 1973, total energy monitoring programs were virtually non-existent. During the past twelve years, rising energy costs have called into being significant new concepts and innovations for monitoring energy. This paper presents a progress report on the state-of-the-art in energy monitoring. It investigates the technological breakthroughs achieved in transducers, micro- processor-based flow computers and a PC-based data acquisition system. These technical advances did not exist a decade ago, and their presence is uniquely tied to the need to measure and to control energy.