Glossary

Energy & building terms, in plain English

A quick, jargon-light reference for the terms you’ll come across when talking about building energy and Enerzyz.

AHUAir Handling Unit
The unit that conditions and moves air around a building — heating, cooling, filtering and circulating it.
Baseline
A model of what your building’s energy use ‘should’ be, adjusted for weather and occupancy. Savings are measured against it, so results aren’t just down to a mild month.
BACnet / Modbus
The common ‘languages’ building equipment uses to talk to each other. Enerzyz connects over these, which is why it works with most existing systems.
BMSBuilding Management System
The control system that runs a building’s plant — HVAC, chillers, pumps and more. It monitors and schedules equipment. Enerzyz adds continuous optimisation on top of it.
CAPEX / OPEX
Capital expenditure (buying equipment up front) versus operating expenditure (ongoing running cost). Enerzyz typically needs no CAPEX (subject to a property assessment) — nothing to buy or rip out.
Chiller
The machine that produces chilled water to cool a building. Usually the single biggest energy user, which is why it’s a primary focus for optimisation.
COPCoefficient of Performance
How efficiently a chiller or heat pump turns electricity into cooling or heating. A higher COP means less energy for the same result.
Edge device
A small, secure on-site appliance that reads equipment data and sends it out to Enerzyz. It connects outbound only — it opens no inbound ports on your network.
ESCOEnergy Service Company
A provider that delivers energy savings, sometimes paid from a share of those savings. Where applicable, Enerzyz engagements can use a similar shared-savings model.
FCUFan Coil Unit
A smaller in-room unit that heats or cools the air in a specific space, such as a guest room or office.
HVACHeating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning
All the systems that keep a building at the right temperature and air quality. In many buildings it’s the majority of the energy bill.
IPMVP
The International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol — the recognised standard for proving energy savings are real. Enerzyz verifies savings against it.
kWhkilowatt-hour
The standard unit of electricity use. Your bill is essentially a count of kWh, so cutting kWh cuts cost.
OTOperational Technology
The equipment and control systems that run a physical building — as opposed to IT (email, guest data). Enerzyz works in the OT layer and doesn’t touch personal data.
PUEPower Usage Effectiveness
A data-centre efficiency measure: total energy divided by the energy that actually reaches the IT equipment. Lower is better; ‘PUE drift’ signals waste creeping in.
Shared-savings model
A commercial arrangement where you pay from a share of the verified savings delivered — so cost is tied to results.
Telemetry
The operational readings equipment produces — temperatures, power draw, run-times. Enerzyz reads this telemetry; it needs no guest or personal data.
tCO₂etonnes of CO₂ equivalent
A standard way to express carbon emissions. Cutting energy use cuts tCO₂e, which feeds ESG and sustainability reporting.
VAVVariable Air Volume
A system that varies how much conditioned air is delivered to each zone, rather than running flat out — a common efficiency lever.
VRF / VRVVariable Refrigerant Flow / Volume
A widely used air-conditioning system (Daikin, Mitsubishi and others) that varies refrigerant flow to match demand. Enerzyz supports it where a compatible controller is present.

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