Energy Monitoring for a Smart Building in Germany

Introduction

A tailored energy and heat pump monitoring solution designed specifically for a customer in Germany.

Project Overview

Client-owned 3-floor apartment building in Germany
The heating system is installed in the basement
The client needed to monitor the correlation between the heating system and ambient temperature

Basement mechanical room with installed heating and monitoring infrastructure — Heating system image in the basement.

Customer Challenge

Lack of visibility

The client could not determine how ambient temperature affected heating system performance.
The client could not assess whether the heating system was operating efficiently.

No easy historical analysis

The client needed to export data from the system for analysis, maintenance planning, and operational review.

Solution Overview

Field Devices

Shelly EM monitors power and energy consumption for the whole building, heat pump, floor 1, floor 2, and floor 3.
Shelly H&T monitors indoor and outdoor ambient temperature.
Shelly Plus + Add-on with tank sensors captures flow/return temperatures for floors 1, 2, 3 and buffer tank temperature.

Middleware (Node-RED)

Handles authentication, API storage and refresh, API calls to retrieve data from field devices, data processing, normalization, and forwarding to cloud.

Cloud (ThingsBoard)

Receives and stores telemetry.
Provides operational dashboards.
Supports historical data export for deeper engineering analysis.

Field Devices → Middleware → Cloud

Field Devices

Power, energy, and temperature sensing layer

Middleware

Data retrieval, processing, normalization, and forwarding

Cloud

Storage, dashboarding, and historical export/reporting

What the Dashboard Helps the Client See

Outdoor temperature versus flow/return temperature trends
Heat pump power consumption versus thermal response
Comparison of energy usage by floor
Historical review for anomaly detection and inefficient operating windows
Export-ready data for deeper engineering analysis

Home dashboard for user monitoring and analysis — Dashboard for user.

Some real-world images from the client side

Temperature and monitoring sensor installed in the mechanical room — Sensor installation point 1

Additional field sensor integrated with heating infrastructure — Sensor installation point 2

Shelly monitoring hardware used for power and thermal telemetry — Shelly sensor

Electrical panel and monitoring integration for field devices — Main electrical panel

Historical Reporting & Data Export

The reporting view allows timestamp-based export of power and energy records, supporting deeper trend analysis, maintenance planning, and technical investigation when abnormal behavior is observed.

Historical dashboard view with exportable timestamp-based energy data — Historical data query and report export interface

Tech Highlights

Feature	Technical Implementation	Benefit
Multi-Point Sensing	Shelly EM, H&T, and Plus + Add-on across building, floors, and heat pump	Full visibility of power, temperature, and thermal flow per floor
API Middleware	Node-RED handles auth, API polling, normalization, and forwarding	Reliable, automated data pipeline from field devices to cloud
Cloud Platform	ThingsBoard telemetry storage and dashboards	Operational dashboards with historical analysis in one place
Data Export	Timestamp-based export of power and energy records	Supports reporting, maintenance planning, and investigation

Multi-Point Sensing

Technical Implementation: Shelly EM, H&T, and Plus + Add-on across building, floors, and heat pump

Benefit: Full visibility of power, temperature, and thermal flow per floor

API Middleware

Technical Implementation: Node-RED handles auth, API polling, normalization, and forwarding

Benefit: Reliable, automated data pipeline from field devices to cloud

Cloud Platform

Technical Implementation: ThingsBoard telemetry storage and dashboards

Benefit: Operational dashboards with historical analysis in one place

Data Export

Technical Implementation: Timestamp-based export of power and energy records

Benefit: Supports reporting, maintenance planning, and investigation

Real-World Results

Operational reliability: the system runs continuously without interruption.
Decision support: the client can clearly observe building behavior during winter conditions.
Professional usability: the dashboard is easy to use and includes export and reporting capability.