Control energy consumption with aM&T+C
June 1st 2007 Lisa Wilkinson, business
development director, at t-mac
Technologies warns that businesses
shouldn't rely solely on aM&T
devices or Smart Metering for
energy management assistance.
aM&T devices provide users with
an understanding of where and
how much energy is being used, to
help business identify waste and
poor performance.However the
major draw back of these systems is
that they lack a key ability control.
It is clear that businesses don't just
need to know what energy they are
using but they need to have the
ability to proactively control it.
This is where all-round energy
management packages are coming
to the forefront and effectively taking
outdated aM&T systems to the next
level with an added element
'control', which at t-mac Technologies
we have named aM&T+C.
It has a built in logic controller,
which means users can control
equipment in accordance to
changing conditions and
coordinate suitable 'on' times in
response to requirements.They can
also remotely shut-down
machinery or turn it off if
levels/load become critical.
The t-mac system was recently
installed by a telecommunications
company throughout its base
stations in the UK to monitor:
temperature inside the base station
(to ensure it wasn't too hot or cold);
fire alarm and Very Early Smoke
Detection Apparatus; air handling
unit faults; main and generator
power and door switches to keep
tracks of energy and exits.
In a short period of time, t-mac
identified that each air handling
unit was experiencing set and
configuration problems causing
sensor failure. Information obtained
from the t-mac enabled the user to
rectify the problems within the air
handling unit's (AHUs) settings and
ensure it operated efficiently.The
user was also keen to initiate
generator tests by manually
simulating a mains failure this was
made possible by t-mac's webpage.
t-mac was required to not only act
as an early warning system allowing
the user to rectify faults at each basestation
remotely; but it provided the
capability to collect accurate and upto-
date energy status data about the
faulty equipment. All data was
transmitted over wireless GPRS offsite
and uploaded to a central server
accessed by users through a single
domain name over the Internet.
Managers at the head-office were
able to log-on through a dedicated
web page to view information on
each base-station via interactive
graphs, tables and gauges these
are also easily downloaded into CSV
format for standard database
analysis and reporting.
The aM&T +C also allows
monitoring of the condition of
machinery often before they occur
which helps not only reduce
energy consumption but also
extend machinery life-cycle. More articles from T-Mac Technologies: | 
