Digital boiler room: smart meters for the heating of tomorrow

Discover the potential of smart meters to make heating more cost-effective and energy-efficient.

Heating systems are major energy consumers in buildings. Although they ensure that apartments, offices and commercial premises enjoy a pleasant room temperature even in winter, they are often not at their optimum setting. This not only means unnecessarily high energy consumption, but also higher costs and accelerated wear. 

The ability to monitor heating systems provides great opportunities for improvement, especially for those who own multiple properties. By optimising their heating system configuration, building owners can noticeably reduce energy consumption and so permanently cut their costs, incentivise tenants and pass on lower additional costs. 

This is where smart meters for heating come in. They increase energy efficiency through monitoring and load management and are particularly well suited for optimising heating systems that use heat pumps. In this blog post, we introduce the concept of the digital boiler room, which uses smart metering to optimise heating.

Maximum energy efficiency for heat pumps

Heat pumps have increasingly become the method of choice in recent months and years for the eco-friendly heating of buildings. Optimising a heat pump using smart metering for heating involves a combination of electricity and heat meters as well as a gateway and specialist software to achieve a noticeable increase in the efficiency of the heat pump. 

An analysis of consumption data shows potential savings in terms of energy and CO2 emissions. Using dedicated software, it is then possible – taking into account external data such as weather conditions as well as time of day and night or real on-site data with indoor and outdoor sensors – to reduce energy consumption by 10 to 30 percent.

Advantages of using smart meters to optimise heating: 

• Clear visualization of all consumption data and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Identification of potential energy efficiency savings
• Reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions
• Optimum control of heating in terms of load management
• Use of AI for further optimisation
• Additional data for heating technicians for rapid troubleshooting
• Early error recognition through abnormal consumption
• Early detection of a heat pump fault

Remote meter reading at the heart of smart heating

Meters that can be read remotely provide the foundation for smart heating systems and are an efficient solution for the monitoring and control of energy consumption. These innovative devices typically consist of a combination of one electricity meter and up to two heat meters. 

This is accompanied by a gateway with a power supply that ensures the automatic recording and transmission of the measurement data. Depending on the requirements at the installation site, a mobile antenna can be added to the system to ensure an optimal wireless connection. 

It is vital that these components are installed by qualified personnel so as to avoid the risk of errors in optimising heating using smart metering. Once the meters have been installed and connected professionally, the gateway ensures seamless data transfer to a central platform. The data is processed here and is available for further analysis to enable appropriate system optimisation measures to be implemented on site.

Conclusion

A digital boiler room with smart meters optimises the energy efficiency of heating systems. This combination of meters that can be read remotely, a gateway and appropriate software enables significant energy cost savings and reduces CO2 emissions through real-time monitoring and control of energy consumption. 

Heat pumps in particular benefit from smart control that incorporates external environmental factors and so can reduce energy requirements by up to 30 percent. The use of smart metering for heating not only optimises heating performance and cost efficiency, but also results in more sustainable building operation. In short: the digital boiler room is a key element in buildings that are both smart and green.

FAQ about smart meters for heating

What are the benefits of optimising heating systems using smart meters?

Smart metering for heating provides comprehensive reporting of consumption data and key performance indicators, helping identify potential savings and contributing to effective troubleshooting. This technology enables precision control and adjustment of heating systems, which can significantly reduce energy consumption and costs.

What is the digital boiler room and how does it work?

The digital boiler room is a modern concept that uses smart metering technology to monitor and control heating systems. This technology enables real-time energy consumption to be recorded and analysed, optimising heating performance control and significantly reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions.

How do smart meters for heating make buildings more eco-friendly?

Using smart meters enables heating systems to be controlled more efficiently, significantly reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This helps heating systems operate in a more eco-friendly way and supports the goal of achieving buildings that are green and sustainable.