Compared to a standard meter, a Half Hourly Meter provides much more frequent readings (as its name suggests, readings are taken every 30 minutes and communicated directly to your energy supplier).
This gives you better visibility of your usage, which is a distinct advantage if you’re starting to think about your business’s environmental impact.
On your bill, you will find your total energy usage for that billing period. However, one monthly or quarterly figure won’t give you a detailed insight into how you use energy.
To really get to grips with what you’re using, you can ask for a copy of your half hourly usage from your supplier. This will help you understand when and how you’re using the most energy, and identify ways to cut your energy usage. This is a vital step in managing your carbon footprint.
Take a look at our article How Half Hourly Metering Can Help You Cut Your Usage for more information on how to measure and reduce your energy consumption.
If you’re a Tritility client with a Half Hourly Electricity Meter, you can easily visualise your consumption in easy-to-interpret charts via our Energy Monitoring platform. It’s free to use as part of our service. We can also provide expert advice on how to cut waste and reduce your bills.
Once you’ve got to grips with your usage, you can calculate your carbon output. To work out your carbon footprint over a certain period, you’ll need:
- Your overall consumption figure, in kWh, for the period you want to measure (e.g. past month, past year, etc.)
- The current emission conversion factor (see next paragraph)
The emission conversion factors are a set of figures, published by the government, which organisations can use to report on their greenhouse gas emissions. The 2022 conversion factor for electricity is as follows:
Total kg CO2e per kWh: 0.19338
That means for every kWh of energy you use, your carbon output is 0.19338 kg. This is calculated based on the UK’s fuel mix, and changes from year to year.
To calculate your monthly carbon footprint, you would need to multiply your monthly total energy consumption in kWh by 0.19338.
This will give you your ‘benchmark figure’. As you take steps to cut your energy usage, you can measure your progress against this benchmark.
Tracking software can make the process of reducing your carbon footprint much easier. We’ve partnered with Future Net Zero, who specialise in helping businesses achieve zero carbon, to offer our clients access to their Carbon Accounting dashboard.
By linking your Half Hourly Electricity Meter to our Energy Monitoring platform and FNZ’s Carbon Accounting software, you will get full visibility of your usage, expenditure and carbon output. You can set alerts and goals, and monitor your progress via graphs and reports.
For more information on how we can help you start your journey to net zero carbon, get in touch.