Category: Smappee Infinity

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Why Smappee’s Updated Data Retention Policy is Excellent News

Why Smappee’s Updated Data Retention Policy is Excellent News

A parking lot indicating a Smappee commercial solution

Smappee has recently updated its data retention policy, reflecting its choice to retain data for longer time periods. Let’s see why this is a fantastic change for energy monitoring and management. And particularly so for Australia’s apartment blocks, businesses, and fleet EV charging applications.

How has Smappee data retention changed?

Smappee already retained data for decent lengths of time. Now, it will keep a more extensive archive for each user. For the Smappee Genius and Smappee Connect / Wi-Fi Connect, the changes in new data retention periods are as follows.

Data intervals:Data retention with old policy:Data retention with new policy:
5 Minute1 month6 months
Hourly3 months1 year
Daily1 year5 years
Monthly3 yearsUnlimited
YearlyUnlimitedUnlimited

Why is this change a great improvement?

This is a big step up in data retention, and it makes it easier to record and assess daily load profiles across all seasons. If you’re a facility manager, this can give you a clearer picture when you’re assessing available capacity for EV charging at the premises. You can use load profiles to:

  • Deliver the best possible charging service
  • Make the best possible use of solar panels and batteries
  • Plan better for future infrastructure, and
  • Minimise the impact on the electric grid.

More historical data simply means better decision making – whether you’re managing EV charging in strata properties, or for your business EV fleet.

A laptop showing energy consumption data using the Smappee platform, located at the Stone & Wood Brewing Co.
Stone & Wood Brewing Co in Byron Bay can easily access their energy and EV charging data to make savvy management decisions.

How Smappee Infinity helps

If you’re looking to make smart decisions about EV charging, the modular Smappee Infinity system puts you in charge when it comes to power monitoring and smart control. Here’s how.

For new EV infrastructure

Are you evaluating a building’s or premises’ capacity for EV charging infrastructure? It will really help to first build up an accurate assessment of the past 1-3 months of energy patterns. With Smappee Infinity, you can better understand how much capacity is left over after typical energy consumption is taken into account. You can also see whether an upgrade to the supply for the building would actually be required.

It typically costs less than $3,500 to have a Smappee Infinity system installed at the main switch board of your premises. Doing so could help you make smarter decisions about charging infrastructure, so this can be a relatively small (yet wise) investment.  

For existing EV infrastructure

Of course, if you’re using Smappee for a commercial or public setup then you’ll be using Smappee Infinity to monitor and manage EV charging. Real-time and historical data can be accessed from either your online dashboard or the smartphone app.

Depending on your setup, you can use your Smappee data over time to maintain overload protection and dynamic load balancing of the EV chargers. Smoother charging and better power management at your premises is good news for everyone.

Unsure about your next step for commercial EV charging?

You may be planning to install EV chargers for the first time, or wondering about the best way to go about upgrading. Vista Power Technologies can assist. We can help you build or develop the ideal EV charging system for your premises right across Australia. To get started, just get in touch with our team.

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8 Smappee-Compatible EV CPO Services in Australia  

8 Smappee-Compatible EV CPO Services in Australia  

It can feel like there are almost as many CPO services as there are EV chargers – so how do you choose the right option? You’ll no doubt want an easy way to manage EV billing and charging for your public site, business, strata apartment block or anywhere else you might have Smappee charging stations installed.

Keep reading for our roundup of the best Smappee-compatible CPO services available in Australia right now.

What is an EV CPO service?

A Charge Point Operator service, or CPO platform, is software that enables you to remotely manage and monetise multiple charging stations. Think of it as your EV back office system, where you can see information like status, power consumption and costs. Some platforms can help you to manage public EV charging, some help to manage EV fleet charging, and some can be used to manage multi-user accounts like those at strata properties.

A CPO service can also be referred to as an EV charging station management solution (CSMS) or charging management platform.

What criteria should a EV CPO service meet?

If your site is in Australia, it’s important to look for a CPO service that:

  • Is available and supported in Australia.
  • Supports the remote management of your specific electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). For example, you may be looking for a CPO platform that’s compatible with the Smappee EV Wall or Smappee EV Base.
  • Suits your charging, billing and analytics purposes. Apartment blocks can have different needs to fleet charging.
  • Is compatible with the Open Charge Point Protocol 1.6 (OCPP 1.6) for integration.
  • Is intuitive to use on your smartphone or browser, and
  • Is approved for grants in your area, if you’re applying for any.

So based on the criteria above, here are eight leading options. Pricing guides were correct at the time of writing, but be sure to check directly with the provider for up-to-date pricing.

7 top CPO platforms in Australia you can use with Smappee

1. Chargefox

Suitable for: Public EV charging, shopping centres, retailers, councils, commercial fleets, apartment buildings.

Chargefox is Australia’s largest EV charging network, managing over 10,000 EV charge sessions a month. Not only do they have an intuitive app for drivers, but they also have software for charge point operators that enables real-time monitoring and remote management of charging stations. You can set dynamic pricing for on-peak and off-peak hours, and manage RFID cards across commercial fleets.

Chargefox is already being used to manage chargers at major shopping centres around the country and is set to be used for WA’s new 7,000km EV charging network. We’ve set up many solutions already using Smappee and Chargefox, so we know it’s a solid choice in Australia.

Pricing guide:

Chargefox offers a tiered pricing model, starting at $330 per annum per charge port for public subscription and $165.00 per annum per charge port for private subscription. Visit the website for a quote.

2. Noodoe EV OS

Suitable for: Public EV charging, commercial fleets, public fleets, resellers, hospitality, residential charging, retailers.

The Noodoe EV operating system is used across 14 countries, and the company has an office in Queensland as well as the US and Taiwan. Noodoe has a clean and modern interface for charge point operators, where you can see real-time snapshots of your charging stations and automate payment processing and smart scheduling.

Noodoe is structured with add-on microservices that you can use to meet your needs. For example:

  • Retailers could offer free charging voucher codes to attract EV drivers to local sales.
  • Building managers can customise their billing system to be prepaid or postpaid.
  • Hotels can create integrated membership systems with different rates for different users, or offer charging codes to guests or VIPs.
  • CPOs can enable Load Management to ideally balance multiple chargers without needing electrical upgrades.

Another great feature is Noodoe’s smart alert and self-recovery system, which helps provide peace of mind about your charging points.

Pricing guide:

Pricing begins at $149.99 per annum per charge port, plus a percentage of each public transaction. You can visit the website to book a demo and request a quote.

3. Charge N Go

Suitable for: Public EV chargers, shopping centres, retailers, councils, commercial fleets, apartment buildings.

Charge N Go EVNet provides a solution for private, shared and commercial charger management. Its modular structure means it can be customised to suit your application, whether you’re managing charging stations at a shopping centre or within a strata property. This platform is feature-rich with automated billing and payments, load management, API integration and flexible user management. You can also gain insights into your charging management through usage, costing and charging session analysis.

The Charge N Go platform has been used for clients including Knight Frank, apartment blocks and condominiums, and the Lumi rideshare service.

Pricing guide:

Charge N Go’s platform fee is $275.00 platform fee per annum per connector for Public EV charging. For apartments and business use, enquire about the community package at $225 per annum per connector. There’s a management fee of $0.10 per kWh, and an optional 4G data package is also available.

4. GreenFlux

Suitable for: Public EV chargers, shopping centres, retailers, commercial fleets.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, GreenFlux has been around for over a decade and is used across five continents. GreenFlux’s CPO software is a solid option for smart EV charging, so you can have multiple cars charging simultaneously without overloading the grid. You can also use GreenFlux to easily handle reimbursement billing for employees, wholesale billing to other CPOs, and retail billing complete with invoices for customers.

With APIs and a white label option for their Charge Assist app, GreenFlux is flexible enough to suit a range of different EV charging needs.

Pricing guide:

GreenFlux pricing depends on the solution you require – visit the GreenFlux website for a demo and tailored pricing.

5. Charge Hub

Suitable for: Public charging, electric bus fleets, electric forklift fleets, solar carports, apartment buildings.

Charge Hub is a locally supported CPO software option, with a base in Brisbane and coverage across Australia and New Zealand. Charge Hub promises up-time availability of 99.9%, together with dynamic load management and options for fixed or dynamic tariffs.

Charge Hub gives you options for payment management, so you can choose pay-as-you-go or invoice driver accounts collectively at the end of the month. You can also set different prices for different groups of users, which is useful if you want to offer free charging for staff while charging the general public at the same station. It’s easy to see data such as time spent charging, per kWh used and idle time.

Pricing guide:

Charge Hub has tiered pricing, starting at $280+GST per annum per charge port for public access and $180+GST per annum per charge port for semi-public access. Visit the website to arrange a quote.

6. Chargebay

Suitable for: Public EV charging, commercial fleets, public fleets, apartments, retailers.

Chargebay offers a comprehensive EV billing and management platform. You can set flexible pricing modes across different customer groups based on a flat rate per charge, charging or waiting time, location, or by other criteria. Or, you might prefer to simply maintain reporting and access control for a fleet at a lower rate without the bells and whistles. Chargebay supports dynamic load balancing to help you get the best out of your existing EV charging setup (and rooftop solar systems, if applicable), and reporting makes it easy to keep an eye on what’s happening with your charging points.  

Chargebay also offers 24/7 customer support, with physical locations in WA and Victoria.

Pricing guide:

Chargebay offers tiered pricing plans based on one year and two year subscriptions, with the ability to choose from Reporting and Access Control only or Paid Charging Sessions depending on how you plan to manage and monetise your chargers. Visit the website to request a quote.

7. WeVolt

Suitable for: Individuals and businesses wanting to monetise their charging stations with a simple solution, including strata buildings.

WeVolt is a homegrown startup originating in Perth, Western Australia. WeVolt launched in August 2023 so it’s still early days, but the platform allows individuals and businesses to manage and receive real-time payments from their EV charging stations. You can use the fresh-looking app, or log into the browser-based platform to see electricity usage and payment details. WeVolt seems well suited for those wanting a simple solution without complex management features, though the company is able to set up custom solutions for large networks.

Pricing guide:

WeVolt has a tiered pricing plan for those with single chargers, multiple chargers and at the enterprise level. The best way is to get in touch for pricing via the website.

8. CasaCharge

Suitable for: Home EV charging, apartment charging, public charging and fleet charging.

CasaCharge is another Australian CPO solution compatible with Smappee EV chargers, which promises lower operating costs with its billing and load management service. It’s simple to log in and view usage statistics, sessions in progress and manage RFID cards. Phone and email support is local to Sydney, so you’re never on your own.

Pricing guide:

Visit the CasaCharge website to request a quote and get further details on pricing.

If you provide a Smappee-compatible CPO service in Australia that’s not yet listed, please get in touch so we can add your service!

Which CPO services are approved for the NSW EV Destination Charging Grant and WA Charge Up Grant?

WA and NSW currently have grant schemes in place to co-fund the cost of EV charging infrastructure in these states. In order to be eligible for either, you’ll need to choose approved charging EV chargers and EV charger software. You can check the individual lists below.

Approved list for the NSW EV Destination Charging Grant >

Approved list for the WA Charge Up Workplace Grant >

Vista Power Technologies is an approved provider for both the WA and NSW grants, and can help with both private and public subscriptions. If you’re looking for the right EV charging solution for your site, we can help you. Contact us today to get started.

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EV Charger Installation Costs in Australia: Homeowner’s Guide

EV Charger Installation Costs in Australia: Homeowner’s Guide

How much does it cost to install an EV charging station in Australia? If you’re one of the many people looking to buy an electric vehicle, you’ll of course be looking for the best solution to charge your car at home – and how much to budget for this.

The costs to add a charging station at your home will include two key categories. These are:

  1. The cost of the charging station hardware itself, and
  2. The cost of installation by a licensed electrician.

So let’s take a closer look at both of these factors.

Cost factor 1: The EV charging hardware

Prices for home EV chargers can vary quite a lot depending on features (or lack of), but the better quality systems begin at around $1,500-2,000. There are two useful features to look for when choosing a home charger.

The first is dynamic load balancing, which can protect your home from blown fuses and overloading. The second is smart charging, which lets you optimise for off-peak rates and solar charging. Smart charging involves a little extra setup, however it can have several benefits. As one example the Smappee EV Wall can support charging that’s up to 6x cheaper, and you can set charging times to suit your preferences.

Quality matters

It’s also really important to choose a quality brand, because these products will be more durable, reliable and intuitive to use. Usability is definitely worth thinking about when you’re using the system every day. We choose to supply the Smappee brand because its EV line is developed in Europe, ticks all the boxes above and has a user-friendly smartphone app for easy management.

Cost factor 2: The installation costs

Home EV charging station installation costs can run anywhere from around $700 for simple systems, into potentially thousands for complex installations. The first thing to consider is whether your electrical supply supports:

  • Single-phase charging of up to 7kW, which runs off standard 240-volt power. This is known as Level 2 charging, and many of the major EV manufacturers recommend this as a minimum level. Or,
  • Three-phase charging, which can charge at a rate of up to 22kW. Depending on your choice of EV, you can potentially charge up to three times faster if your home has three-phase power. However, take note that the AC charging limit is usually set by the car rather than the charger. Many EVs are set to a maximum of 11kW AC charging only.

Installation costs can vary depending on your current power system and if you plan to upgrade (where possible).

How can I tell if I have single or three-phase power?

The easiest way to tell if you have single or three-phase power is to look at the main circuit breaker of your switchboard. Single-phase households will have a single-pole breaker. Meanwhile, three-phase households will have a three-pole breaker. Most residential homes in Australia will have single-phase power.

Installation costs will also depend on how close the switchboard is to the installation point.

Some install cost examples

Where the switchboard and charging station are on either side of a wall, you might expect installation costs of around $600 for single-phase power and $800 for three-phase power.

If yours is a single-storey home with accessible roof space and installation up to 15 metres from the switchboard, you may be looking at installation costs of around $750-990 for single-phase power and $950-1300 for three-phase power.

And if yours is a double-storey home where the cable needs to be run from one side of the house to the other (known as up and over), this tends to add around $400-800 to the installation cost.

Of course, the numbers above are ballpark figures. Costs will vary based on your location and local trades.

Your installer will work with you to find the best location for your property and budget.

Other considerations for installation costs

You may also need to factor more into your installation budget in the following cases:

  • If monitoring equipment and/or extra communications cabling needs to be installed for smart charging features
  • If any trenching is required
  • If your switchboard doesn’t have enough spaces
  • If the EV charger requires a type-B RCD installed. It’s worth noting that many chargers include type-B or 6mA earth leakage protection. Or,
  • If you plan to upgrade to three-phase power.

To sum up

Although there can be some initial setup costs for home EV charging, you could soon be enjoying very low running costs for every kilometre you drive. The savings over time speak for themselves!

Get a quote for EV charger installation costs

Want to get pricing for your own home? Vista Power Technologies is the ideal first point of contact for EV charging at home. Our Melbourne team can ask the right questions and tailor a setup and quote to suit your needs without obligation. Contact us to today for pricing and advice, right across Australia.

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Integrate Smappee & Home Connect for Household Savings

Smappee Home Connect Integration

Integrate Smappee & Home Connect for Household Savings

Fancy saving up to 30% on your energy bill without much effort at all? By integrating Smappee and Home Connect, you can use off-peak energy or solar energy in a much smarter way – and these two systems can do the hard work for you. Here’s how it all works.

What is Home Connect?

Home Connect is an app that lets you easily control a wide range of connected appliances in your home, including products from Bosch, Siemens and Gaggenau. These smart home appliances include fridges, freezers, coffee machines, hobs, dishwashers, washers, dryers and more.

What is Smappee?

Smappee offers smart energy monitoring and management solutions. In this case we’re talking about Smappee Infinity, which can be used for easy smart energy control and dynamic load balancing in your home.

How do Home Connect and Smappee integrate?

This is somewhat up to you and what you have connected in your home, but integration can be set up for connected washers, dryers, washer-dryer combos and dishwashers. Once you have your Smappee app and Home Connect app connected, you’ll be able to create settings that drive your appliances in a more energy-efficient way. Here are some examples.

Example one: Sweet breakfast savings

You could choose to schedule your smart dishwasher to run between 10pm and 6am to optimise for off-peak energy. The integrated system will run the dishwasher in this timeframe with the lowest available energy tariff, so you’ll wake up to sparkling coffee mugs and lower energy costs.

Example two: Sun-powered clean clothes

You could also choose to schedule your smart washer-dryer to run between, say, 9am and 3pm while you’re at work. The integrated system can trigger the washer-dryer when maximum solar use is available to minimise energy usage and costs, and you can arrive home to clean, dry clothes.

Because Smappee Infinity provides transparent energy data on an appliance level, you can see exactly how much you’re saving in real time via the Smappee app. Not only is it satisfying to see how much energy and money you’re saving over each billing period, but nasty surprises can also become a thing of the past when it comes to energy bills. More appliances are expected to be added to the Home Connect network as time goes on, so the potential for energy and cost savings is set to grow even further.

What else can be done with Smappee Infinity?

Smappee Infinity is exciting because you can build on it in a way that suits your lifestyle and home. You could add electric vehicle (EV) charging to power your car via maximum solar energy and minimum energy tariffs. You could install a home battery, and program its use in the Smappee app to further minimise your household energy bills. You could potentially even be paid for the use of your battery during peak demand periods via a virtual power plant (VPP) program. There are some really exciting possibilities with Smappee, and these are only set to grow because the system is designed to be modular and future-proof.

How do you get Smappee Infinity installed?

We’d love to help you create a connected home system that suits the way you live, minimises your energy costs and unlocks these exciting technologies. Contact us to get started, wherever you live in Australia.

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Guide to Smart EV Charging in Strata Car Parking

Smappee EV Charging Strata Car Park

Guide to Smart EV Charging in Strata Car Parking

Smappee’s EV Line Providing Smart AC and DC EV Charging Solutions

Many would agree that an oversimplified yet accurate way to describe installing and managing EV charging in a strata car park would be somewhat complicated.

The following guide provides insights and important considerations when looking into EV charging in a strata complex. Also provided is a list of solutions that can be combined to make the process much more palatable and manageable.

Key considerations include:

  • Power Monitoring to Determine Capacity
  • Electrical Infrastructure Requirements
  • Load Management to Prevent Overload
  • Usage Reporting to Allocate Costs
  • Automating Electricity Cost Recovery
  • Sourcing Finance for Project Costs

As the authorised agent for Smappee in Australia, and experts in energy monitoring and EV charging, Vista Power Technologies can provide a solution to all the above hurdles. This makes implementing an EV charging network within a strata facility as simple as it can be, by leveraging the latest technologies and best practices.

Let’s break down each of the challenges that may be presented in an EV charging project and look at the solutions we have available.

Smappee Web-Base Dashboard Reporting on site Consumption and Solar Production

Power Monitoring to Determine Capacity

The first step any facility should take in evaluating their capacity for EV charging infrastructure is collecting some electrical consumption data over a period of 1-3 months. This is to determine what additional capacity they have for EV charging and whether an upgrade to the supply for the building is required.

For example: the building may have a 200A three-phase supply, but how much of that capacity is left over after household consumption and common loads?

Thankfully this can be achieved quite easily by installing a Smappee Infinity system at the main switch board. This can collect grid import data and provide reporting on electricity usage over time via a cloud-based dashboard, accessible via the free web app.

Typically costing less than $3,500 for supply and installation of this system, facility managers and owners corporation members can quickly gain access to this valuable data and determine what charging capacity they have available to work with.

The other benefit of installing the Smappee Infinity system for this purpose is its ability to be used for overload protection and dynamic load balancing of the EV chargers (see load management section).

Electrical Infrastructure Requirements

Once a strong understanding of available supply capacity has been developed, a decision can be made as to the size of the EV charging supply. Typically, a separate power distribution board (EVDB) will be installed to feed the charging stations. This would be rated to a little above the maximum excess capacity measured during the power monitoring step.

Previously, industry practice would be to install individual circuits for each charging station. This significantly adds to the cost for circuit and earth leakage protection, cable tray, cabling, and labour. Not to mention the issue of potentially hundreds of cable runs throughout the car parking areas to individually feed power to each car park.

Our solution for this is to utilise a specially developed flat cable system that can supply multiple charging stations off each circuit breaker. This significantly reduces cabling and cable tray requirements, whilst also providing a much tidier solution.

Flat Cable System Example

One of the key benefits of this cable system is that it can be initially installed as backbone electrical infrastructure. Apartment owners can then easily tap into this system at the time of making the switch to an electric vehicle.

Load Management to Prevent Overload

EV charging is no small load. At 7.4kW for single-phase charging stations, and up to 22kW for three-phase units (when referring to AC type charging), the total potential load can grow rapidly. Just 10 x three-phase charging stations have a load potential of 220kW or more than 300 amps. Many buildings just don’t have the capacity to support these sorts of loads.

This fact alone makes a load management system a critical requirement to any site looking to install many EV charging stations – even when a large supply capacity is available.

Overload protection aside, there is also the need to fairly share the available load across all the charging stations. This is called dynamic load balancing. In a nutshell, the system needs to monitor the available (excess) capacity at the grid connection, and then spread any available power across all the active charging stations.

The good news is that when Smappee EV Wall charging stations are used, the Infinity system installed at the power monitoring step can also be used for overload protection and load balancing control.

There is only an upfront cost to enable this feature on each charging station and no ongoing fees for this functionality. This makes the Smappee EV charging load management solution one of the lowest cost options on the market when considering both upfront and ongoing costs.

Where there are existing EV charging stations on site, or the property owners want the option to use various brands of charging stations, a third-party system can be used for this load management functionality. However, this option does come with ongoing annual fees.

Usage Reporting to Allocate Costs

Okay, now we have the electrical infrastructure and load management sorted. We now need to consider how billing will be managed. Because the power is typically drawn from the site’s common supply, EV charging sessions need to be tracked to ensure apartment owners can cover the costs for the electricity required to charge their vehicles.

Smappee EV Charging Management Dashboard – Whitelisted User Consumption Reporting

Where the strata want to manage things with minimal ongoing costs, the owners corporation can manually manage the billing of apartment owners for their EV charging consumption. This would involve running a monthly or quarterly report via the Smappee EV charging management dashboard, on a per user basis. This will allow a bill to be raised based on an agreed cost per kWh.

Automating Electricity Cost Recovery

If it’s preferable to have billing managed automatically, then there are third-party platforms available including our own Vista Charge service.

Utilising a third-party platform has its benefits, including being hardware agnostic. This allows apartment owners to choose any EV charging station compatible with the latest Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP).

These solutions are typically used for automated billing management, where the user downloads a smartphone app, creates an account, and adds their credit card details. The charge point operator (CPO) then takes payment at a set amount per kWh after each charging session and reimburses the strata owners corporation on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The only drawback with this scenario is that there are ongoing costs, which typically include annual service fees and transaction fees. However, this is often considered to be worth paying to reduce the responsibility placed on property management.

Sourcing Finance for Project Costs

Now that we’ve packaged everything up and are ready to go ahead with a solution for EV charging infrastructure in strata car parking, there’s one final hurdle: managing the upfront costs.

Most apartment owners aren’t going to want to fork out more than $1,000 each to cover these costs. Especially the ones that aren’t yet ready to switch to electric propulsion, regardless of the tangible increased value on their property for EV ready car parking.

With this in mind, we recommend talking to a strata finance specialist who can package up the project costs for payment over a 3-5 year period (for example), allowing apartment owners to incorporate the project costs into their quarterly OC payments. This might be somewhere in the vicinity of an additional $100-$150 extra per quarter.

By managing things this way there is a little less financial shock to everyone, and the barrier of approvals by apartment owners can be somewhat reduced.

Conclusion

So, there we have it. By utilising the right technologies and solutions available, the complicated challenge of EV charging in a strata car park is made a little less daunting and a little more approachable.

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Submetering & Reporting per Australian NCC Section J8.3 with Smappee

Smappee Cloud Reporting Dashboard Showing Historical Usage Data
Smappee Infinity Section J8.3 Reporting
Smappee Customisable Online Dashboard for Real-Time & Historical Reporting

Smappee provides a cost effective, plug and play solution to meet the Australian national construction code requirements for energy monitoring and reporting..

The latest revision of the Australian National Construction Code and in particular NCC 2019 Volume One – section J8.3 Facilities for energy monitoring, means a lot when it comes to power metering and gathering historical usage data for light, power and other sub distribution circuits.

New 2019 Requirements

As of the 1st of May 2019 in NSW, VIC, SA, QLD and NT, and from the 1st of June 2019 in ACT the new standards require essentially all sub-distribution boards installed in large commercial facilities to have power meters installed and require the historical time of use data to be captured and accessible via a common data hub/monitoring system.

J8.3 Facilities for energy monitoring

(a) A building or sole-occupancy unit with a floor area of more than 500 m2 must have an energy meter configured to record the time-of-use consumption of gas and electricity.

(b) A building with a floor area of more than 2 500 m2 must have energy meters configured to enable individual time-of-use energy consumption data recording, in accordance with (c), of the energy consumption of—

(i) air-conditioning plant including, where appropriate, heating plant, cooling plant and air handling fans; and

(ii) artificial lighting; and

(iii) appliance power; and

(iv) central hot water supply; and

(v) internal transport devices including lifts, escalators and moving walkways where there is more than one serving the building; and

(vi) other ancillary plant.

(c) Energy meters required by (b) must be interlinked by a communication system that collates the time-of-use energy consumption data to a single interface monitoring system where it can be stored, analysed and reviewed.

(d) The provisions of (b) do not apply to a Class 2 building with a floor area of more than 2 500 m2 where the total area of the common areas is less than 500 m2.

Previously the requirement for metering of these sub-circuits required no data gathering and meters did not need to be connected to a communications network and monitored by a common system; e.g. BMS (building management system) or EMS (energy management system). Power meters could simply be installed and essentially forgotten.

The main intent of these changes to the national construction code is to allow the energy usage data to be utilised by tenants, owners, and facilities managers to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce energy costs. The individual requirements for interval data and how long the data is stored is dependant on the facility itself.

More information on the requirements for submetering per section J8.3 and the intended purpose for the metering system can be found in the Energy Efficiency Handbook – NCC Volume One, which can be downloaded from this page on the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) website.

Better Utilisation of Installed Meters

This is a great initiative to ensure that installed power meters are able to provide functional and accessible insights into a facility’s energy usage, offering potential cost savings by allowing property managers and tenants to make informed decisions about the way they manage energy.

However, connecting sometimes hundreds of power meters to a common network and implementing a system to monitor and capture power usage data can be very costly, often in the range of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Enter Smappee Infinity

The Smappee Infinity system provides a perfect solution for these networked energy monitoring requirements.

Each modular system can be expanded to monitor up to 28 circuits including conductors rated up to 4,000A.

Furthermore, multiple systems can be added to a single site and all of the data can be reported from the same dashboard.

In addition to power monitoring, the Smappee Input Modules can be used to monitor gas and water consumption by interfacing via pulse output.

Smappee Infinity Commercial Install Example

Modular Design

The Smappee Infinity range of power monitoring devices allows for one system (Gateway + Power Box + CT Hubs / CTs) to monitor up to twenty-eight conductors. This can be a combination of single and three-phase circuits.

The current clamps range from 50A all the way up to 4,000A, meaning this solution can be used for small commercial buildings all the way up to multi-level facilities with large main feeds from the grid.

By utilising this modular platform end-users can gain large cost savings compared to purchasing and installing multiple power meters, networking equipment, and a custom reporting platform.

Meets Requirement for a Single Interface Monitoring System

Leveraging IoT technology the Smappee dashboard provides the functionality to view multiple Infinity systems from the one online interface.

Each system can be viewed individually, or a common board can be created showing historical data from all systems connected to a single site.

This is called the locations function and allows for easy access to real-time and historical energy usage data at multiple switchboards.

This feature works with both multiple MSBs and DBs in the same facility, or located anywhere in the world.

Data Gathering and Reporting

In addition to the benefits provided by Smappee’s modular hardware solution, data gathering of power usage can be carried out in one of two ways.

Users can utilise the Smappee online dashboard for historical and real-time reporting, including the ability to download data to a spreadsheet file.

The Connect gateway can also provide Modbus-TCP/IP over Ethernet, which can be connected via high level interface to a BMS or EMS.

The cloud-based reporting platform only requires an internet connection to work and the gateway options can achieve this via an Ethernet or WiFi connection to a local network connected to the internet There is also the option to use a 4G USB dongle with the Genius gateway.

Data Storage and Interval Data

The gateway devices will store local data for 24-48 hours in the case that an active internet connection is lost. This is model dependant with the Genius providing 48 hours backup and the Connect series providing 24 hours.

Once the data is stored to the cloud users can access interval data down to 5 minutes for 30 days, hourly data for 90 days, and daily data for up to 12 months.

Gas and Water Monitoring

In addition to power monitoring, Smappee also offers a range of input devices that can be used to collect pulse outputs via an S0 directly or with the assistance of an optical or magnetic sensor. This means that gas and water consumption can also be monitored by the same system.

Save with Smappee

When taking all of the above into account the cost for a Smappee Infinity energy monitoring system to meet the NCC section J8.3 requirements including hardware and cloud-based software is only a fraction of the cost compared to many custom engineered systems. It makes sense to consider Smappee for commercial power monitoring as the advantages can be significant from both a technical and cost perspective.

For more information on how Smappee can provide a cost effective metering solution per the BCA requirements, check out the Smappee Infinity overview Smappee Infinity Energy Management System.

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