To view Laurel Boys and Girls Club progress in saving energy, click here on “Energy Maps”
by Timmy Gelles | Staff Writer
(Reprinted with permission of The Laurel Gazette)
In an effort to reduce a skyrocketing utility bill, the Laurel Boys and Girls Club is teaming up with Maryland Green Power Company, which will donate energy-saving equipment pro-bono.
Patrick Reed, LBGC executive director, said the club spends about $90,000 each year on heating and electricity, a price that has increased 30 percent during the past couple of years. With rising fuel prices, he said this year’s bill will top $120,000.
“The energy cost has never really been this high,” Reed said.
Much of the high cost is due to the age of the LBGC building and the condition of its insulation and windows. The LBGC building was built in 1899, some renovations were done in 1935 and 1950 but the original windows remain.
Vanessa van der Have, the club’s under-age 6 soccer team coach, said she wanted to find an affordable long-term solution to the soaring costs and contacted Maryland Green Power, who offered to help the club pro-bono.
“The energy bill is preposterous,” said Dennis Meizys, owner of the Columbia-based Maryland Green Power.
Meizys said that the LBGC is the first pro-bono contract his company has ever done.
“It was perfect site because they have very high energy usage,” Meizys said. “And they’re a social work group, so they should spend their money on other things besides electricity.”
Meizys said Maryland Green Power has donated more than $7,000 of equipment, including the EnergyMaps system which allows LBGC to remotely monitor its energy usage. EnergyMaps analyses the data and allows each staff member to view it in real time, whereby they can see their effects on the overall consumption.
Meizys said EnergyMaps is probably the most effective way to cut down energy usage.
In six months, with all the data logged and examined, Meizys said he will meet with the LBGC and look at things that require small to medium investments. He said some options include a new lighting system in the gymnasium and adding water cooling capabilities that should save the club 30 percent on air conditioning costs.
The club is also taking steps on its end. Reed said he and club officials are educating each of the 18 programs on how to be more energy conscience, such as turning off lights when not in use.
He said the club is working on receiving a government loan to acquire new windows or repair the existing windows. Reed said he is expecting a report within a couple weeks on whether the windows are even repairable.
Reed said the rise in prices has cut into LBGC programs. Each year the club normally offers 400 partial or full waivers for families who cannot afford the $75 program fee. This year, the club can only provide 200 waivers to its 3,500 youth participants.
With winter on the horizon, the rising oil prices will also add to the bill. Reed said the boiler usually costs about $12,000 a month during the winter. This year he projects the cost will rise up to $17,000 per month.
The future of the club’s finances looks optimistic. Reed said that within 18 months, the LBGC should start reducing its energy by 40 percent. Meizys said the amount of money the LBGC will save will be larger than the amount they currently pay.
“I think it’s a win-win for both because [Meizys] aligned himself with the largest club in Maryland,” van der Have said. “And for the club, the more support they can get from the outside — from the private sector, the parents, the volunteers — the better.”
E-mail Timmy Gelles at tgelles@gazette.net.
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hey roomies m thinking to become an enigin partner but little more scared to get conned coz m selling a property to invest those money in this business as incremental benifit on my property seems to sluggy we compared to ROI with enigin. suggestion welcome plz help
I just bought an Eniscope to try it out before investing in a territory as a USA Enigin partner. I’ll tell you when I receive it.
I bought the Eniscope from a link I found on Twitter that goes right back to another page on this site:
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I can’t find any other sources besides this one.
I can’t get my hands on an ACES yet. Searched the Internet for it. Not for sale anywhere. Not even on this site.
I was also tempted to buy an iMEC from this site but have no idea how to test it to see if it works as advertised. They say its better than the powersave, but I don’t know if they are comparing it to the 1200, 3200 or 3400. I wish they were more specific.
Tell me what you learn.
Hello Paul,
Thanks for your order. If you need help configuring the real-time energy portal, you can purchase the remote configuration assistance via the same site you bought the Eniscope. The direct URL is:
http://www.marylandgreenpower.com/eniscope.html
The stand-alone Eniscope is on sale for much less than a complete Energy Maps system and consultancy would sell for. Note that we also offer financing up to 5 years for this product.
The ACES is not currently on sale as a stand-alone energy saving air conditioner controller, but is sold as a load-side solution under the Enigin energy saving guarantee, which is part of the Energy Maps program.
If you want to test the ACES, we can send you one if you send us $ 140 via PayPal to cover materials and domestic US shipping to PayPal address: dmeizys@marylandgreenpower.com
However, we will not market the ACES solution on the Web.
The iMEC HFE27 is a single phase motor soft starter which can easily save up to 18% (the manufacturer claims up to 40%) on small single phase motors.
Specifications and ordering information are available at:
Wholesale iMEC motor soft starting controller pricing
By reading the article at that link you will see that the iMEC is an active motor controller with an energy optimizing function, which will also improve power factor. It dynamically adjusts its operation to the size and characteristics of the motor being controlled, something that the Power-Save 1200 does not do.
At less than 1/2 the price of a Power-Save 1200, comparing wholesale pricing to wholesale pricing, it is truly a bargain.
Finally, you will never see an engineer write an article doubting the effectiveness of motor soft starting, as opposed to the many blog posts and even news programs which cast doubt on those over-priced boxes of capacitors called “power factor correction devices.”
As a reminder, power factor correction devices do not do anything to reduce a residential customer’s power bill, and any bills showing “proof” to the contrary should be examined with skepticism, taking into consideration the many other factors which can affect the monthly power bill.
(This is a great application for the Eniscope – run a power measuring experiment comparing power factor correction devices vs motor controllers. Note that a simple handheld ammeter will only show total amps, a meaningless metric since billing is done in kWh, while amperes multiplied by voltage is kVA and includes the non-billed reactive power component.)
Buyer beware!
How can we buy a sample "Eniscope"?
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We have not yet reached the stage of deploying Enigin load-side solutions and thus do not have an opinion on those products, nor do we use the European model Eniscope, which does not comply with US Standards.
Are you an Enigin partner? If so, in which territory?
So you are saying that the Enigin equipment and tools realy work??
[...] Laurel Boys and Girls Club EnergyMaps Project reported by The Laurel Gazette [...]
Over the winter, Laurel Boys and Girls Club was consuming almost as much energy at night as during the day, even though it was unoccupied (how was this discovered? By using the Enigin Eniscope to monitor and datalog the energy usage over the internet 24/7).
It was discovered that volunteers were tampering with the heating controls, which resulted in electric resistance heaters inefficiently pumping heat all night long.
A simple and inexpensive solution was to padlock the thermostats. The monthly energy savings was in the THOUSANDS of dollars.
If you consider that the price to lease the EnergyMaps system runs from $ 91 per month, then saving this many thousands of dollars is like winning the jackpot in the lottery – the savings continue month to month – totally not proportionate to the amount invested.
Can your business afford not to invest in Energy Maps?
Near the end of the article, I meant to say that the monthly energy savings from the program will be more than enough to pay for the monthly cost of financing the improvements over 5 years or less.
Thus, all of our improvements target an immediate improvement in monthly cash flow for both business and residential customers.
For more information, call: 443-864-3072.