Electricity Metering of Miscellaneous and Electronic Devices in Buildings

Miscellaneous and electronic loads (MELs) consume about 30% of the electricity used in U.S. commercial buildings, but our understanding of their energy use lags the traditional end-uses. A key component of reducing energy use is understanding how devices are used, but few studies have collected field data on the long-term energy used by a large sample of devices due to the difficulty and expense of collecting device-level energy data. This paper describes a wireless MELs metering system and an office building case study where these meters were deployed. Hundreds of miscellaneous and electronic devices where metered for several months. This paper includes key findings on the meters, network and MELs energy use.