Running a pub or club is a balancing act. Guests want a great atmosphere, kitchens and bars need to move fast and venues often operate long hours across multiple spaces. All of that adds up to significant energy use, often without a clear line of sight on what’s driving it. In addition, pubs and clubs may have sub-tenants, for example, kitchens/restaurants/bistros, accommodation or other facilities.
If you’re serious about energy efficiency in pubs, the most practical first move isn’t ripping out plant or guessing at upgrades. It’s getting the data to make confident decisions. That means metering. The challenge for many venues is that bills only tell you what you spent, not why. Metering turns energy from a fixed overhead into something you can actively manage.
You can see patterns, pinpoint waste, validate improvements and keep savings from drifting away over time.
Why Pubs and Clubs Are Uniquely Tricky for Energy Management
Unlike a typical office, venues have energy-hungry equipment spread across different areas, each with its own operating rhythm. Kitchens spike during service. Refrigeration runs around the clock. HVAC and exhaust demand changes with occupancy, weather and events.
Gaming rooms, function spaces, bottle shops, back-of-house areas and outdoor lighting all add complexity. That variety is exactly why many operators struggle to improve efficiency. The biggest opportunities are often “hidden” inside a blended bill. Metering is how you separate the signals and focus effort where it matters.
Metering: the Foundation of Energy Efficiency
When people talk about efficiency, they often jump straight to replacing equipment. That can work but the risk is spending money without certainty. Metering answers the questions that turn efficiency into a repeatable process.
- Where is our energy actually going and when? Which areas are driving peaks and demand charges?
- What changed after we adjusted schedules or maintained equipment?
- Are we getting the savings we were promised?
- Are there early warning signs of faults or drift?
For energy efficiency in pubs, metering is especially valuable because small operational improvements can deliver meaningful savings without sacrificing guest comfort. Fine-tuned schedules, better setpoints, fixing controls and identifying equipment left on all add up.
What to Measure in a Pub or Club (and Why)
A strong metering plan usually starts with a main meter view, then adds sub-metering to separate key loads. You don’t need to measure everything on day one. Start with the places where energy use is high, variable or business-critical.
HVAC and Ventilation
Heating, cooling and ventilation are often major contributors and they’re strongly affected by operating schedules and control settings.
Metering can reveal extended runtimes, simultaneous heating and cooling or fans running outside required hours.
Kitchen and Exhaust
Cooking equipment, dishwashers, hot water systems and extraction fans can create sharp peaks. Metering helps you see the relationship between service periods and energy spikes. This is useful for tuning start and stop times and maintenance.
Refrigeration
Cold rooms, display fridges and ice machines run continuously. Metering can highlight short cycling, defrost issues, door seal problems or equipment that’s consuming more than it should. Those problems often show up as a gradual creep in usage before failure.
Gaming Areas and Function Spaces
These zones can behave differently to the rest of the venue, especially with extended hours. Sub-metering gives you the clarity to match energy strategy to the way each area is actually used.
Lighting and Outdoor Loads
Lighting can be efficient but it’s still a big category in venues with long operating hours and outdoor areas. Metering helps validate changes like LED upgrades or improved controls.
Turning Metering Data into Action (Without Getting Overwhelmed)
Data only matters if it leads to action. A practical approach is to work in cycles.
Establish a baseline. Capture at least a few weeks of normal operation, then identify typical daily profiles: weekdays versus weekends, event nights, seasonal differences. This sets the reference point for future improvements.
Identify “out of hours” usage. Many venues discover a surprising amount of load overnight or during closed periods. This is often the easiest win: tightening shutdown procedures, adjusting timers and confirming controls are working.
Watch demand peaks. Demand charges can be a major cost driver. Metering can show which loads coincide at peak times so you can stagger equipment start-ups, adjust pre-cooling strategies or review kitchen warm-up schedules.
Investigate anomalies quickly. A sudden change in a sub-metered circuit is an invitation to investigate before it becomes a major fault. The sooner you act, the lower the cost and disruption.
Verify improvements. When you change schedules, service equipment, or upgrade plant, metering tells you whether savings are real and whether they persist.
Common Efficiency Wins Metering Helps Unlock
Metering doesn’t just tell you where you are. It helps you find the simplest path forward. In pubs and clubs, the best wins often come from operational tuning.
HVAC schedules and setpoints that match real occupancy patterns. Better control of ventilation and extraction fans. Fixing control overrides and “temporary” manual settings that became permanent. Detecting refrigeration issues early, before breakdowns. Preventing equipment from being left on outside service periods. Confirming which upgrades are delivering the best return, so you can prioritise the next stage.
Over time, this creates a culture of measured improvement. You do less guessing and more targeted action.
Building a Metering Strategy That Fits Your Venue
A good metering rollout should suit the venue’s complexity and budget. Many pubs start with a small number of sub-meters focussed on the biggest loads, then expand once the early findings prove value.
If you manage multiple venues, metering becomes even more powerful. You can benchmark sites against each other, spot outliers and replicate what works. That’s how energy efficiency in pubs becomes scalable rather than a one-off project.
SATEC: A Metering Solution Built for Practical Energy Management
SATEC provides advanced metering and monitoring solutions designed to give venue operators clear, actionable insight into energy performance. Instead of relying on a single utility bill, SATEC’s approach helps you break consumption down by area or system so you can pinpoint waste, verify improvements and maintain efficiency over time.
Key strengths that make SATEC a strong fit for pubs and clubs include the following. SATEC meters support NMI-approved requirements where applicable, which is important for compliant, trusted measurement in many Australian applications. Beyond basic consumption, SATEC solutions can also provide visibility into power quality. This is useful for venues running sensitive equipment, refrigeration assets and electronics where supply issues can affect performance and reliability.
For sites looking to strengthen monitoring and reporting, SATEC’s cloud software platform, Expertpower, helps turn metering into a management system. It gives you a clearer view of trends, exceptions and opportunities across circuits, areas or even multiple venues.
Whether you’re starting with a single venue or managing a portfolio, SATEC’s metering solutions can be staged to match your priorities. Begin with the highest-impact loads such as HVAC, kitchen and refrigeration and expand over time as you build a clearer picture of where the savings are.
Making Energy Efficiency an Ongoing Advantage
Improving energy performance isn’t just about cutting costs. For many venues, stable systems and better control also mean fewer breakdowns, more consistent comfort and smoother operations, especially during peak periods.
If you want meaningful, repeatable progress with energy efficiency in pubs, metering gives you the visibility to move from assumptions to evidence. Start with the areas that matter most, act on what you learn and keep verifying outcomes. The result is a venue that runs smarter, not harder, without compromising the experience guests come for.
Talk to our team about how metering can improve energy efficiency in your pub or club.
FAQs - Energy Efficiency in Pubs and Clubs
What’s the first step to improving energy efficiency in pubs and clubs?
Start with metering so you can see where energy is being used, when it spikes and which areas are driving costs.
Do I need to sub-meter everything to get value?
No. Most venues get strong results by sub-metering the biggest or most variable loads first, like HVAC, kitchen equipment and refrigeration.
How does metering help reduce demand charges?
Energy metering shows exactly when peaks occur and which loads overlap, so you can adjust schedules or stagger equipment start-ups to avoid costly spikes.
How can SATEC help with metering in pubs and clubs?
SATEC provides advanced energy meters plus Expertpower cloud software to break down usage by area or system, spot waste quickly and verify savings over time.
