Houses and apartments

Turn a whole-building bill into a useful breakdown

Hot water, air-conditioning, pool equipment and everyday appliances can make very different contributions to a home’s electricity use. PhiSaver monitors circuits at the switchboard, helping you see the timing and size of those loads instead of guessing from the bill.

For apartment buildings, start by defining the question: common-area electricity, shared plant or a particular dwelling. Monitoring coverage depends on the switchboards and circuits included in the installation; one monitor does not automatically provide a breakdown of every apartment.

Look for the loads you can change

• Identify the overnight baseline and equipment running while the property is empty.
• Compare hot-water and pool-pump schedules with available daytime solar.
• See how cooling demand changes through the day and across seasons.
• For common property, review lighting, ventilation and shared services against their required operating hours.

PhiSaver’s information pack describes a site where hot water, rather than the suspected lighting, was the main opportunity. Changing its schedule allowed more heating to occur while solar was available. The useful lesson is to measure first and direct the work towards the actual load.

Understand the limits of the measurement

Monitoring reports the total for each measured circuit. Appliances sharing that circuit are not separately metered, although their operating patterns may help explain the result. The installation should therefore be planned around the decisions you want to make.

For a shared building, agree access and monitoring scope with the responsible owner or manager. Use the results to prioritise operating changes and equipment upgrades, then check whether the expected reduction appears in the measured data.