In order to measure energy savings provided by implementing management systems and products, it is helpful to have an energy usage baseline to measure current energy usage against. Previously used solutions included metering energy consumption over a long period of time, for example, an entire year, before installing any energy saving products. The requirement for this long period of time for metering is based on the need to acquire sufficient data for temperature and seasonal energy usage variations. One solution for establishing this energy usage baseline would include not implementing the energy saving management systems and products at the energy consumer's location until a year of data could be gathered. This solution would allow all of the temperature changes and operational behavior of the location to be included in the energy usage baseline.
However, modeling energy usage before installing energy saving products can be unreasonable from a business perspective. Consumers do not want to have to wait for a long period of time before realizing energy savings. Business considerations call for reducing the timeframe for establishing this energy usage baseline in order for the consumer to enjoy the benefits of energy saving products. Additionally, it may be difficult for all non-temperature variables, such as traffic level, operational conditions, and appliance efficiency, to remain constant for a year. If some of these variables change, some or all of the data obtained from monitoring the energy usage may become invalid.
Measurement and verification is a method used to compare results of energy efficiency measures implemented against the performance that would have otherwise transpired. This method attempts to control for various independent variables the primary variables being ambient temperature. Temperature adjusted energy savings calculations use a limited set of data, for example a few weeks or months worth of data, to project savings over the course of a year. Using a limited set of data is prone to inaccuracy, because variations may occur in the limited period of time that may not occur as frequently over the course of a given year.