March 2012

After spending millions of dollars for a new building or significant energy efficiency upgrades, the last thing a building owner might want to hear that more is needed to cut a wasted operating budget.

Commissioning (Cx), a prerequisite for a LEED® certified building, is THE means for building owners to buy a new building for which they KNOW they are getting what they are paying for.

These are the kinds of wastes that typically persist indefinitely unless a thorough investigation via RCx is conducted. The cost for such an analysis is almost always less than one year's wasted energy expenditures.

Commissioning costs can run from 25 cents per square foot for simple facilities, like an elementary school, to over $1.00 per square foot for complex facilities such as laboratories or hospitals.

If energy cost is a priority, soon operators and managers will engage in competitive behavior, either competing with other shifts, or with their own past performance. This is human nature.

There are numerous things that can be done to reduce compressed air demand. Fixing leaks is probably the easiest and most cost effective way to reduce the compressed air demand.

Mechanical dewatering methods are far less energy intensive. Just like at home, it makes a lot more sense to put money into a high-spin, efficient clothes washer than to spend it on an efficient clothes dryer

A wisely designed refrigeration plant can operate 25% more efficiently simply by selecting the right size compressors and staging the compression process.

Infrared heat can heat objects and people directly in its path, without having to heat the air. When radiant energy strikes the floor or another object, the energy is absorbed heating up the surface of the object.

When two different humidification systems are compared, only the energy required to operate the humidifiers is considered. Different systems affect the entire HVAC system energy usage differently