I get asked this question a lot. It is usually followed up by some form of this statement: I also have no funds for improvements.
What we will endeavor to do in this article is to provide some tips to help realign your utility bills with your utility budget with low cost/ no cost tips of the trade.
Every summer, the weather and other financial considerations, have the potential to bust your energy budget. How you got there will be a topic in the future. Now that your there, and the electric bill shows up at a substantially higher number than you have allotted, we have to deal with that reality now.
The first reality we need to address is that your utility bills are really history lessons. The bill in your mail box today is for energy consumed last month. That means unless we take some fairly drastic measures today, next month the scenario will present itself again. We are required to act today to adjust, and the effectiveness of those adjustments will not be known until the next rounds of utility bills are received. Here are some steps that should have an impact in reducing your costs:
Educate the tenants and workers of the facility on the situation and deploy them to help reduce consumptions.
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says a thousand hands make light work. It is so true. I often find that the users or occupants of a facility are ready, willing and able to be a part of the solution, they only need some guidance. Hold meetings where you openly discuss the national financial difficulties and how they are affecting us locally. Ask them to help by reporting the leaky faucet that is wasting water and to turn the lights off when they are the last to leave a restroom. The cleaners, staff or contractor, are also a good source of help. Sometimes simply meeting with them and making them aware of the situation brings about drastic changes. The lights they were leaving on to clean the suite gets cut by a few minutes helps considerably over time. Follow up frequently and the results will improve. I also encourage people to advertise their successes. A sign in the lobby or an email to the contacts to say “Thanks. Because of your efforts, we were able to reduce our consumption by X% over same time last year and that saved so many pounds of carbon from being released to the atmosphere or the equivalent of acres of trees saved.” Deploy your forces wisely and conservation will result.
Every degree you can raise the temperature setting of the air conditioning controls saves about 3-5% in HVAC energy consumed.
I recently performed an energy review in a facility that had experienced a three fold increase in the electrical costs. After taking a quick look at the bills, I discovered that the electrical consumption had also tripled. Brief discussions over the phone with the building owner revealed that the occupancy levels were the same and the normalized weather was fairly close to the same period last year. We agreed to meet at the facility and had a look around. What we found was that the thermostats, while programmed for the exact same occupancy period, had lowered the setting on all thermostats to 70 degrees, where as last summer they maintained a 74 degree setting. This may be a somewhat over simplified set of conditions but the financial impact is typical. If you adjust the temperature settings from existing to your new targeted temperature over time instead of all at once, all of a sudden, it will probably be noticed less. Many companies have temperature guidelines written into their leases, so be mindful of that as to not violate any terms or conditions. The explanation that we are conserving the planets precious and limited resources will also go a long way.
Energy Audits save!
As energy professionals, we have a front row seat to what a lot of companies consider an energy strategy. We get to see a lot of failed strategies. A low cost energy audit, not an investment grade audit, but having an energy professional take a quick look at your facility normally pays big returns. Because they look at things from a different perspective. It is an excellent prospect when you can change a 100 watt incandescent lamp to a 13 watt compact florescent (don’t forget to recycle the CFL’s, they contain mercury!) But increasing the efficiency of the lighting system is only one possible scheme. We also want to look at any opportunity to pay less for the energy. Can we bundle the energy and bulk purchase with another building in the portfolio? Have we truly reviewed the rate schedule to make sure we are operating the building in a manner conductive to maximize the tariff? Is their any opportunity to run the HVAC equipment less time and still meet the lease guidelines? An energy strategy to reduce energy consumption, and reduce the carbon footprint, is complex and professional help may be what the doctor ordered.
Your spending money on utilities, so you have some funds.
Sometimes we will steal from Peter to pay Paul. What I mean by that is this: can we take a small percentage of funds that are budgeted to pay the electric bill to purchase an energy conserving product that will have a rapid return on investment? Let’s say that my electric bill is $1000 this month and I expect it to remain relatively consistent for the next few months. I can purchase a programmable thermostat for $100. By adjusting set points and programming the unit to be off during certain periods, I am able to save $50 per month and after my two month payback period, I can accumulate the savings and purchase similar energy conservation devices, products and services. It takes a leap of faith that the return is going to be there but knowing my tariff, equipment runtimes and savings from temperature adjustments, I can be assured that I have done the due diligence in verifying the factors involved.
Night Inspections
Ever drive by a big office building at night and see almost all the lights on? Makes me wonder what else is running that shouldn’t be. Make a quick lap around the facility one night every few months or so. Make note of what equipment is running. Find out if it absolutely necessary and make adjustments. Many facilities have locked in rate agreements now that can be a good deal for them. A substantial number of agreements charge a flat rate for energy now and the low cost off hours electric from the past is no more. You may be paying the same rate for off hours consumption as you are during the day. Your rate agreement should be really clear in this matter. You will find computers left on unnecessarily; hear leaky faucets and a host of other items literally draining your energy funds. During the hustle and bustle of a regular work day, these things will go unnoticed. At night, they stick out drastically.
Hopefully, these few quick tips can help ease the pain a bit here in the middle of the summer. DC can not only be hot but humid as well. This “DC Heat Pump” has the potential to bust your utility budgets but a few simple steps can bring the relief.
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Greatings, Interesting, I`ll quote it on my site later.
Thanks
Coincidentally, we just wrote about how easy solving this problem can be, so easy, that children were able to reduce energy expenses in a small test area of Roland Park Elementary School in Baltimore County.
Please click here to read about how it was done.