District cooling provides chilled water to industrial, commercial, and residential buildings via a closed pipeline network. Functionally and technically, it is similar to district heating networks – and is becoming popular worldwide. In Europe alone, 40% of commercial and institutional buildings have cooling systems, and this number is rising rapidly.
Average temperatures are rising all over the world. In fact, the World Meteorological Organization reports that the last seven years have been the seven hottest on record with average global temperature rising above pre-industrial levels every year since 2015. This trend is set to continue – and has huge implications for the growing number of people who are at high risk due to a lack of cooling.
The growing gap in access to cooling is a huge challenge as working and living conditions are becoming more and more unbearable. One solution is to use air conditioners and electric fans to stay cool, but this accounts for nearly 20% of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today. Something needs to be done – without action, energy demand for space cooling will more than triple by 2050.
Today’s energy challenges require smarter, more energy efficient cities focusing on sustainable use of resources. Smart solutions like district cooling play a crucial role in this development.
District cooling provides chilled water to industrial, commercial, and residential buildings via a closed pipeline network. Functionally and technically, it is similar to district heating networks – and is becoming popular worldwide. In Europe alone, 40% of commercial and institutional buildings have cooling systems, and this number is rising rapidly. The Middle East has quickly adopted district cooling technology and currently accounts for between 15% – 25% of the world’s installed cooling capacity. District cooling can be generated from local natural resources like seawater, or from chillers powered by steam or electricity.
Ultimately, district cooling is an environmentally friendly solution that is reliable and highly secure.
Metering solutions are important for the success of district cooling systems. Not only they enable more accurate billing but they also help to optimize energy consumption and minimize production costs.
Diehl Metering’s SHARKY 775 smart ultrasonic cooling meter, along with the more compact SHARKY 774 smart ultrasonic cooling meter, are among the best on the market for six key reasons:
Tests demonstrate that the SHARKY smart ultrasonic cooling meter is accurate and stable over long time. For example, the SHARKY meter has regularly scored 5 out of 5 stars in several independent tests by AGFW, an independent and neutral energy efficiency association for heating, cooling and combined heat and power.
Since the SHARKY meter's ultrasonic technology has no moving parts, it has very little wear and tear. This makes it well suited for difficult environmental conditions such as humidity. In addition, the battery can last up to 20 years.
SHARKY’s long-term stability, along with its long battery lifetime, and maintenance-free design result in very low operational costs and a low total cost of ownership – all without compromising data reliability.
The SHARKY smart meters precisely measure the consumed cooling energy in a chilled water system, resulting in incredibly accurate billing. SHARKY’s precision also helps to optimize the distribution network and to minimize the production costs of chilled water. For efficiency analysis, SHARKY continuously delivers measured values via radio such as the forward and return temperature, flow rate, energy consumption, and alarm messages.
The SHARKY cooling meters are very flexible in terms of supporting various communication technologies. The meters come with integrated radio that uses the manufacturer-independent open metering system (OMS) commun ication standard, enabling interoperability with different systems as well as other meters and sensors. Furthermore, two additional slots allow customers to easily integrate further connectivity modules such as M-Bus, L-Bus or LoRaWAN. In this way,SHARKY can be used for additional communication technologies as required.
SHARKY meters are approved according to MID Approval EN1434 – a stringent European standard that ensures accuracy and durability of the meter in challenging environmental conditions like humidity and electromagnetic radiation. SHARKY also meets the German cooling meter approval standard PTB K7.2, which sets out stringent requirements to ensure that cooling meters operate reliably in practice.
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The frequent data gathered from smart cooling meters like SHARKY can be used for more in-depth analysis offering improved benefits around energy savings or energy efficiency optimization. Frequent meter data also provides additional insights such as information about the performance of the cooling distribution network.
There are two remote reading solutions for you to consider, each meeting specific requirements
Diehl Metering's Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) solutions enable walk-by or drive-by reading, making mobile readings simple and intuitive. A connection to a portable radio receiver transforms your tablet into an efficient meter reading tool.
If you need high-resolution data or a fully automatic readout on an hourly or daily basis, a wireless or wired M-Bus fixed network from Diehl Metering is the perfect choice for you. An advanced network infrastructure (AMI) allows you to see your network with new eyes and use readings for purposes beyond billing. You can get closer to your end-consumers, give targeted advice, and reduce your customers’ cooling bills, while optimizing the performance and efficiency of your network.
What you choose depends on your needs. However, what is clear is that moving away from manual readings to fully automatic or mobile reading allows for more frequent readings and higher-quality data from your smart meters.
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