MGPC Sustainability Blog

Notice: For more information on how MGPC can help you with energy savings, visit us by clicking here.

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.

In response to their more than $80,000/year utility bill, the LBGC accepted Maryland Green Power’s offer to work pro-bono in evaluating the Club’s energy pitfalls and implement a program to help them become more efficient and significantly cut costs.

Progress on this project so far:

1) Located no-cost electricity provider switch which will save Laurel Boys and Girls Club 8% on their electricity bill immediately;
2) Installed Enigin Eniscope and started metering energy usage in facility’s gymnasium, which contains their largest air conditioning loads: 40 tons of air conditioning. Will commence data logging to develop load profiles and energy usage history for up to 2 years with data stored off-site in redundant storage;
3) Will launch “Energy Buddies” phase in order to implement additional no-cost energy saving solutions.
4) Will publish link to live meter data on this website.

Companies can have their energy bills analyzed for savings for free by faxing all pages of 2-3 months of their electric and gas bills to fax: 443-927-9018, Attn: Free Energy Audit. If selected, we will contact you and send an engineer to your facility for a no-cost energy survey. Please include cover sheet with contact information in order to be considered.

The Maryland Energy Adminstration has announced $ 1.5 million in loan funding to support projects that reduce energy use.

Conditions:

1) Participants have until November 2008 to apply for the loan;

2) The project must pay for itself in energy savings within 7 years.

The Baltimore Business Journal has complete details here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/08/25/daily3.html?f=et52&ana=e_du

Even better news: Maryland Green Power Co. sells products and designs systems with the goal of a less than 7 year payback, in compliance with the MEA requirements. Many projects achieve 2-4 year payback.

For information, please contact Maryland Green Power Co. at:

Columbia Satellite Sales Office

Phone: 443-864-3072

Fax: 443-927-9018

info@marylandgreenpower.com

If you received an offer like that from your local gas station, wouldn’t you be interested?  I know I would be.

Well, how about an offer like that on your electricity service? That would make sense too, right?

So if a company introduced an offer that was even stronger than that, it would be a no-brainer.

So, while we don’t offer free, or even discounted gas, what Maryland Green Power Co. can do for your company is:

1) Reduce your energy costs by at least 30%,

2) Spread out the cost of improvements over time so that money saved is greater than money invested,

3) Guarantee a 4-year payback on equipment or you get the equipment for free!

Example:

If you electricity bill is $ 1,000 per month and we guaranteed you savings of 30%, then you would save $ 300 per month.

If the cost of equipment financed over 4 years cost $ 270 per month, then you would be getting upgraded, energy saving equipment and immediately realize a $ 40.00 per month profit! That’s like getting the energy saving equipment for free!

Better yet, at the end of 4 years, you have paid off the equipment financing and the full $ 300 per month energy savings is yours year after year.

And if you don’t save as much as we claimed? Then, Enigin pays back the full equipment cost to you! There’s no risk and nothing but upside.

For more information on Enigin systems and EnergyMaps, please contact:

Maryland Green Power Co.

1-443-864-3072

Or, fill out our free trial request at:

http://www.marylandgreenpower.com

Ref: What if you were paid to install energy saving products?

..

How does iMEC work?

AC induction motors consume more than half of all the worlds’
energy! Unfortunately, motors lack the intelligence to address
three key problems that lead to massive energy wastage,
unnecessary carbon emissions and undue wear and tear:

1) Fixed speed motor driven applications like escalators cannot
intelligently adjust their torque output to match load changes
leading to excess energy consumption.

2) Motors that drive applications like pumps & fans cannot
intelligently adjust their speed to match load changes and as such
consume more power than they need.

3) When starting, a motor develops more torque than is
required at full speed. This high inrush of current can lead to
mechanical breakdown and peak demand penalties. To avoid the
problems associated with starting, motors are often left running
continuously even when they are not being used which leads to
huge energy waste.

The iMEC solution effortlessly addresses all of these problems
by introducing intelligence to your existing systems:

1) iMEC can be applied to fixed speed applications and will
dynamically adjust the torque output to meet load requirement
without altering the speed (see fig. 1). This leads to substantial
savings and is ideal for applications like escalators and many others
which run at no/low load for long periods of time. In the right
applications, payback is typically under two years!

2) iMEC can be specified to intelligently adjust the speed of
your motors to match their variable loading so your motors only
consume the power they need. This is a vast improvement over
traditional control methods (see fig. 2). A mere 20% reduction in
speed can lead to energy savings of up to 50%!

3) iMEC provides a smooth, step-less acceleration (soft start) of
your motors (see fig. 3). This dramatically reduces wear & tear on
your system and helps you to avoid peak demand penalties. With
a controlled start in place your motors can now be switched off
without the fears of re-starting and iMEC can be programmed to
perform this function automatically. Auto Switch Off delivers 100%
energy savings!

Use iMEC to get your motors under control – it’s a great way to cut your costs, boost your profits and ‘do your bit’ in the fight against climate change

The No-Brainer Investment in Energy Savings Pays Big Dividends!

If you were offered a product which would save you more money each month than you had to pay to finance it, you would feel that you were practically getting the product for free, or even better, being paid to get the product!

This will be true for anyone with an electric bill over $ 700 per month, since the Enigin EnergyMaps program can save you approximately 20% even before implementing load-side energy efficiency solutions. That savings will be higher than the approximately $ 140 per month cost of the lease-to-own EnergyMaps starter package. This is really the first step in anyone’s energy savings program.

EnergyMaps, recently introduced in the U.K., is enjoying rapid growth there as evidenced by this article describing its popularity with printers, among others:

Printweek Article on Enigin Energy Maps

We at Maryland Green Power Co. are excited to announce that we have been selected as Enigin’s exclusive partner in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region with the ability to operate in other parts of the United States as well. We are now ready to introduce this innovative approach to energy savings to the United States.

While Enigin’s solutions include technological innovations such as the ACES Air Conditioner Energy Saver, and iMEC Motor Energy Efficiency Controller, what we appreciate about the EnergyMaps system is its unique people-oriented approach. EnergyMaps utilizes the Eniscope as a metering device which translates the cryptic electrical data gathered from your facility into language and graphics a layman can understand, and displays it on any Internet-connected computer in your facility, and optionally, to points outside of your facility, at no extra charge per station. In other words, since there is no license fee for the display software, it can be duplicated as much as needed. The included iPOD Touch with wireless Internet capability gives your operators the additional benefit of being able to walk around the facility switching devices on and off and viewing the impact on the iPOD’s screen immediately.

This simplicity allows employees to understand the impact of their actions or inactions within their workplace. However, the remarkable aspect is the team mentality which is developed and the efficacy of the incentive plans.

The team is developed with the help of the PeopleMaps tool, which gauges how each person fits in within their organization, and finds the most appropriate “point-man” to help your organization meet its energy-saving targets. (Please take a free trial of the powerful PeopleMaps tool - the test takes 8 minutes and will provide a surprising accurate, if not entertaining impression of you, which you might want to hide from friends and family lest they say “I told you so!”)

Click here for Free PeopleMaps trial

Now, with this information, your staff will know why the utility company is charging you a demand surcharge, and how to avoid it, or that leaving their computer monitors turned on all day even during their lunch break is costing you over $ 75 per monitor in added energy costs, not including the extra air conditioning needed to compensate for their heating.

Is that confusing, overwhelming and just too much to think about while running your operation? Yes, it is! But would you like to recover some of those costs if only you had the time? I imagine anybody would want those energy costs added back to their bottom line profits!

That’s why EnergyMaps will take that off your hands and let you run your business, but still reap the benefits of reduced facility expenses.

There are many more benefits obtained from this program, including increased employee retention and longer equipment life, but for now I think it is safe to say that the $ 140 per month is a great value for this program.

One last thought: The early adopters will receive a good deal of positive P.R. from our press releases which will focus on your efforts to go green. That free exposure and public good will might be worth something.

Of course, the early adopters would not feel safe unless we offered a FREE TRIAL INSTALLATION: We will provide one Eniscope to your facility for a free 2-week evaluation period to prove its benefits. After the 2 week period ends, you choose whether to return the Eniscope, or to pay for it and continue with the EnergyMaps program at our special lease-to-own finance rate starting at $ 140 per month!

To qualify for the free trial, please fill out the request form at:

Free EnergyMaps Trial