Energy heatmap analysis

An activity map is a heatmap of the energy usage for a selected datapoint—like an area of a building, HVAC system, or piece of equipment. Activity maps help you identify savings opportunities at a glance with an intuitive, holistic overview of how much, or how little, energy is being consumed over time.

Use activity maps to perform operations wastage analysis and identify times when energy usage is high, but return on that investment is low—like when no one is present in the building or equipment doesn’t need to be running. Making changes can save substantial cost, energy usage, and GHG emissions while minimally impacting the effective use of a space.

Heatmap visualizations provide immediate visual clarity, allowing energy managers to quickly identify patterns in power consumption. Instead of laboriously analyzing rows of numerical data in spreadsheets, heatmaps use color to represent varying levels of energy usage, making it easy to spot trends, peak periods, and anomalies. This visual approach saves time and enables managers to focus on key areas that need attention, facilitating quicker and more effective decision-making.

With heatmaps, energy managers can make informed, data-driven decisions to optimize operations. By clearly highlighting when and where energy usage is highest, managers can proactively implement strategies to balance loads and reduce peak demand. This capability supports more strategic planning and operational adjustments, ensuring that energy management initiatives are both efficient and effective.

Heatmaps are instrumental in identifying peak load periods, allowing energy managers to implement targeted interventions that can shift or reduce load during these times. By avoiding high peak demand charges and optimizing consumption schedules, significant cost savings can be realized. Heatmaps provide a clear visual basis for these adjustments, making it easier to plan and execute cost-saving measures.

Using heatmaps, energy managers can swiftly detect anomalies or irregularities in energy consumption, such as unexpected spikes that might indicate faulty equipment or energy wastage. This rapid identification allows for timely investigation and resolution, enhancing overall operational efficiency. Additionally, understanding consumption patterns helps allocate resources more effectively, further streamlining operations.

Industries with fluctuating energy demands can significantly benefit from operations wastage analysis.

• Manufacturers can optimize scheduling and equipment runs.
• Healthcare facilities, educational institutions, government  campuses, businesses, and hotels rely on activity maps to analyze consumption across departments and building areas. 
• Retailers leverage activity maps to understand energy use based on customer foot traffic patterns. 

Activity maps make valuable insights into streamlined operations and substantial cost savings available to every organization across every industry.

Activity maps hold the key to several of the most popular, and effective, energy saving features within EnergyCAP SmartAnalytics. Model your energy saving projects and calculate exactly how much energy, cost, and GHG emissions will be saved using activity maps in the Operations Analyzer. Let activity maps guide energy reduction project tracking in the M&V module. 

The EUI trend chart plots all energy commodities for a building or organization (excluding water, refuse, etc.), and provides a rolling 12-month average trendline where each data point is the sum of global use for the prior 12 months divided by the maximum floor area in the same 12 month period. Customizing the data you see on the chart is a click away.

Heatmaps provide an hour-by-hour view of your energy usage data over the course of an entire month, uniquely providing both a bird’s eye view and to-the-minute details of your consumption. Energy activity maps clearly visualize energy use and equipment behavior patterns, including outliers and unnecessary activities. Immediately see circumstances like

• When someone has forgotten to switch off equipment after hours (dark green peak consumption overnight)
• Machines that are needlessly running 24/7 (light green color overnight should be white to indicate no consumption).
• HVAC and light fixtures that can be lowered during periods of low occupancy, like weekends and evenings (change dark green consumption to light green overnight).

Visualizing operational activities alongside energy consumption guides you to the exact changes to make to see lower utility bills. Easily set the schedule of when to switch off a piece of equipment or group of appliances, adjust HVAC schedules, consolidate when groups of equipment are running, and target adjustments to lighting and ventilation during off-peak hours.

One hotel using EnergyCAP identified savings of over 7% in monthly restaurant energy costs just by turning off kitchen equipment and adjusting heating/cooling for a few hours overnight—small changes have big impacts!