I recently participated in one week energy audit class for small commercial businesses. The training was provided by PG&E. The primary purpose of the energy audit is to determine how and how much energy a small business is using, and then to make suggestions on how they can implement energy efficiency measures. If you own a small business (or know someone that does) consider having an audit done. In many cases there are easy, cost effective strategies to reduce energy consumption and save money. PG&E also has incentives and rebates to assist in the upgrades, retrofits etc.
In order to do a thorough beneficial audit, the auditor must know quite a lot:
- Building components and systems
- Equipment with in the building and how to determine its efficiency and energy consumption:
- Lighting fixtures, ballasts, various types of lamps (bulbs)
- Measuring the light and determining adequate/recommended illuminance levels
- Air conditioners, and various AC components i.e. economizers and ducting
- Boilers/ heaters and air handlers
- Refrigeration equipment and how it works
- Motors
- Data logging equipment-gathering and interpreting the data
- Calculations of equipment usage, and replacement costs
- Utility rate structures
- Paybacks and ROI (return on investment)
- Summarized professional reporting of recommendations
An audit could be a level one, fairly brief, walk-through audit that documents some of the equipment in use — age, condition, power usage, etc. — and observations of easy first steps that could reduce energy.
For example lighting is one of the big energy users for many small to medium sized commercial business. Often it can be one of the easiest things to change or manage for better efficiency. One building, for example, thought they had occupancy sensors and/or timers that turned lights on and off. It turned out some of the lights were running 24/7 and also using energy intensive bulbs, like the traditional incandescent. By the way, the incandescent bulb is mid 1800's technology.
So, in this case the auditor was able to replace/repair the sensor/timers so it operated the lights in an on/off fashion correctly. The auditor was also able to recommend changing out the lamps to more efficient CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) and LED (light emitting diode) lamps. By the way, those in the auditing profession refer to light bulbs as lamps . . . not to be confused with fixtures that may have a number of lamps within the fixture.
Space cooling or air conditioning is probably the highest user of energy in the state. During middle of the day in hot summer months it accounts for those high demand periods when all power generating sources are at or near full capacity.
One interesting note from the class was about grocery stores that spend the highest percentage of electricity costs on refrigeration while simultaneously often needing to heat the store at the same time. It struck me as rather odd and inefficient that a grocery store would, at the same time, heat and cool the store.
Naturally many stores are moving to coolers and freezers with doors. The initial investment is rather intensive for the doored coolers, so they are phasing in over time. Actually, this is not uncommon in many buildings, that the heating and cooling systems carry out a costly quiet battle
The chart below, provided by PG&E, shows come common upgrades and potential or average ROI's.
In the end it was very refreshing to see our rate payer dollars at work encouraging, in a very practical and professional way, the importance of Energy Conservation. Common sense dictates that conservation should be one of the first steps in assessing a strategy to reduce electrical expense.
