Setting Up Calculated Meters in Scaler
Calculated meters allow you to automatically combine or transform the consumption values of physical meters using formulas (Add / Subtract). They are essential for modeling Common Area consumption, aggregated Whole-building views, or one-to-many API-integrated setups.
Summary Table — Key Things to Know
Topic | Key Rule / Behavior |
Creation / Deletion | Calculated meters can only be created / deleted manually in the platform (not via spreadsheet). |
Spreadsheet Editing | Only existing calculated meters can be edited; however, Subcategory and Consumption Formatcannot be changed. If changes are made to these fields, the cell(s) will be highlighted in red. While the import will still succeed if all values meet validation requirements, any edits to these restricted fields will be ignored and not reflected in the platform. |
Spreadsheet Uploads | Calculated meter consumption is read-only and cannot be changed. If changes are made, the cell(s) will be highlighted in red. While the import will still succeed if all values meet validation requirements, any edits to these restricted fields will be ignored and not reflected in the platform. |
Subcategory & Consumption Format | Must match exactly between the calculated meter and its included physical meters. |
Consumption Values | Always auto-calculated; cannot be manually added or edited. |
Avoiding Double Counting | Physical meters included with Calculation Method = Add must be excluded from calculations. |
Unit Conversion | All included physical meter values convert to kWh before aggregation. |
Output Frequency | Calculated meters produce one annual value per reporting year. |
Data Requests | Not supported for calculated meters. |
1. What Is a Calculated Meter?
A calculated meter uses the consumption values of other meters to produce a combined result, using a formula made of:
- Included physical meters (which can be automated-API meters)
- A
Calculation method(Add or Subtract)
These meters are fully automated: Scaler recalculates them whenever underlying physical meter data changes.
More details
Calculated meters are commonly used for:
- Deriving Common Area consumption
- Aggregating multiple tenant-space meters
- Creating Whole-building consumption from multiple inputs
- Handling API integrations where multiple provider meters must be combined
They behave like physical meters in many parts of the platform, except that:
- Their consumption cannot be edited
- Their consumption appears as read-only
- They output a single annual total
2. Creating a Calculated Meter
This section walks through the full end-to-end setup.
2.1 Create the Meter Shell (Step-by-Step)
- Navigate to the Data Collection Portal.
- Select the asset → click the pencil icon to enter edit mode.
- In the left menu, go to Meters & Consumption → choose the resource → click Add meter.
- By default, Scaler creates a Physical meter.
- Click the dropdown → select Calculated meter.
- Complete all required fields under Meter details.
Meter typedefines Physical vs Calculated.
⚠️ Critical requirement:
The Subcategory and Consumption format of the calculated meter must match the meters you plan to include later.
How Calculated Meters Appear (UI Behavior)
- Calculated Meter icon → distinguishes these from physical meters
- Included in Calculated Meter pop-up → identifies physical meters that are included in the calculated meter
- View icon → opens the Meter Consumption tab (read-only calculated values)
- Edit icon → opens Meter Details for updating configuration
2.2 Configure Included Physical Meters (Step-by-Step)
Under “Meters included”, define exactly which physical meters make up your calculated meter.
- Click Add Meter.
- The dropdown ONLY shows physical meters whose:
SubcategorymatchesConsumption formatmatches the calculated meter.
- For each included meter, select a
Calculation method: - Add (+) → Include consumption
- Subtract (–) → Remove consumption
- Repeat for all relevant physical meters.
Example configuration: Calculated Common Area meter
Common Area = Whole-building (Add)
– Tenant Space (Subtract)
This yields the consumption attributable to shared landlord-controlled spaces.
2.3 Configure “Include in Calculations” (Step-by-Step)
The Include in calculations toggle determines whether a meter participates in:
- Aggregated metrics
- Analytics
- Reporting
- Data coverage calculations
Rules
- Enabled → Meter contributes to all calculations
- Disabled → Meter is ignored everywhere except where used in a calculated meter
⚠️ Critical Rule: Preventing Double Counting
Physical meters included in a calculated meter with Calculation Method = Add must be excluded from calculations (Include in calculations = FALSE).
This avoids the same consumption being counted twice.
Example:
Calculated Common Area meter =
- Whole-building (Add → must be excluded)
- Tenant-area (Subtract → usually included)
A warning message is triggered when Calculation Method = Add is selected.
Implications of Excluding Meters
Click to expand
- Validation rules still apply (excluded meters may still feed calculated meters)
- Not counted toward data coverage
- Not counted toward time coverage
- Not included in Analytics
- Not included in any reporting outputs
2.4 Save & Verify the Calculated Meter
Once everything is configured:
- Save the meter
- Use View to confirm calculated values appear correctly
- Verify operator logic (+/–) is applied as intended
- Confirm no physical meter was accidentally left included in calculations
3. How Calculated Meter Consumption Works
Click to expand full explanation
- Consumption is automatically calculated based on included meters
- Values appear in read-only mode in both platform and spreadsheet
- Any updates to included physical meters immediately update calculated output
- All units convert to kWh prior to aggregation
- Output frequency is one annual value
- Physical meter frequencies (monthly, quarterly, etc.) still count for validation and coverage
⚠️ Critical requirement: Calculated consumption is only displayed when the asset has 100% data completion. Any Scaler-related Errors or Missing Data alerts must be resolved before calculated consumption can be shown.
4. Impact on Data Coverage
Calculated meters affect data coverage at both meter level and asset level. Coverage behavior differs between Scaler and GRESB, and between time and area coverage.
Meter-level impact
- Scaler time coverage:
- A calculated meter has no raw consumption data of its own.
- Its Scaler time coverage is derived from the included source meters.
- Coverage is calculated by taking the average time coverage of those source meters.
Insight: On individual meter level, the average time coverage of all included source meters is taken.
- Time coverage (area type)
- Scaler evaluates all meters contributing to that area type.
- The meter with the lowest consumption-day coverage determines the time coverage.
When coverage is shown at area type level (e.g. Common area, Tenant area):
Insight: Area type level time coverage uses the weakest meter, not the average.
- Floor area covered
Takes into account the floor area covered by the calculated meter and is not affected by the floor area of the underlying physical meters.
Asset-level impact
Asset-level coverage follows exactly the same rules as meter-level, but applied across all meters contributing to the asset.
- Data coverage:
- Coverage is calculated over the overlapping time interval of all included meters.
- Calculated meters introduce additional dependencies.
- If required source meters do not overlap in time, those periods are excluded
How calculated meters affect it
Key rule: Asset-level coverage is calculated on the intersection of all included (in calculations) meters.
- Time coverage:
Key rule: Asset-level time coverage is calculated on the intersection of time of all included meters.
- Area coverage:
Key rule: Asset-level area coverage is calculated based on the covered area of the Calculated meter and is not impacted by the included meters.
5. Additional Considerations
Linked Building Units
Click for details
- Calculated meters can be linked to Building Units
- Setup mirrors physical meter linkage
- Calculation behavior is identical
API Integrations: One-to-Many Meter Mapping
Click for details
A common API scenario:
Multiple third-party meters need to be aggregated into a single Scaler meter. This setup is used when a client receives multiple meters from an external API, but wants to report them as one single meter in Scaler.
Use a calculated meter as an aggregate when:
- An API delivers consumption split across multiple meters
- Logically, those meters represent one real-world entity
- Reporting should happen on one Scaler meter, not multiple
Recommended steps
Step 1 – Create Scaler sub-meters
- Create one physical Scaler meter per API meter
- Map each Scaler meter 1-to-1 to the corresponding API meter
- These meters contain the raw consumption data
Step 2 – Create a calculated (main) meter
- Create a calculated meter
- Formula:
Main meter = sub-meter 1 + sub-meter 2 + ... + sub-meter 10
- This meter represents the aggregated consumption
Step 3 – Exclude sub-meters from calculations
- Mark all sub-meters as excluded from calculations
- This prevents:
- double counting at asset level
- inflated consumption totals
- Sub-meters still:
- receive API data
- contribute consumption to the calculated meter
6. Common Mistakes & Troubleshooting
Click for more details
❌ Mistake 1 — Subcategory or Consumption Format mismatch
Calculated meter cannot include physical meters unless both fields match exactly.
👉 Fix: Edit physical meter or calculated meter so formats align.
❌ Mistake 2 — Forgot to exclude the “Add” physical meter
This causes double-counting.
👉 Fix: Set Include in calculations = FALSE.
❌ Mistake 3 — Trying to upload calculated consumption via spreadsheet
Calculated meter consumption is always read-only.
👉 Fix: Edit underlying physical meter consumption instead.
❌ Mistake 4 — Included physical meter is missing consumption
The calculated meter will produce incomplete or zero values.
👉 Fix: Check time periods on the included physical meters.
❌ Mistake 5 — API meters mapped but not appearing in included list
Usually caused by Subcategory or Consumption format mismatch.
👉 Fix: Check and correct formatting on all meters.