What does user behavior mean?
An energy meter unfortunately cannot determine the reason for the measured consumption. The actual consumption is a combination between user behavior and technical energy conditions. This is a considerable challenge e.g. by the energy labeling of buildings and by evaluating the effect of an energy renovation.
What is due to user behavior and what is due to lack of insulation or a poor heating system?
A number of energy renovation projects delivers considerably less energy savings than expected and the same observation is in many cases done by the taking over of energy efficient buildings.
In these cases the building company typically concludes that the high energy usage is due to changes in user behavior and not to deficiencies in the technical solutions. The problem is, however, that the user behavior is not being measured nor documented. In other words: there is no clear answer to why the expected energy savings are not reached.
IC-Meter delivers accurate and constant measurements of the actual indoor climate and thereby of the conditions that are influenced by the user: temperature and ventilation. This means that IC-Meter, in combination with measurements of the supplied energy, can deliver a realistic view of the energy usage distributed on user behavior and technical energy savings.
The “black box” of the building
IC-Meter can thus act as neutral umpire between building company and user where the “black box” of the building thoroughly records air turnover and indoor climate over time.