Many boiler plants are doing just that, continuously dumping hot water down the drain for boiler blowdown. In addition, cold water is often added to the hot blowdown water to meet sewer temperature requirements.
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Retrocommissioning Savings Proven La Crosse, WI - March 23, 2012 - The Energy Solutions Center, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization promoting the efficient use of natural gas, contracted with Michaels Energy to produce a report on the energy-saving potential, best practices, and persistence issues surrounding retrocommissioning projects and programs. As part of the study, Michaels Energy shared its experiences, lessons learned, project data, and recommendations for retrocommissioning (RCx) programs with specific emphasis on natural gas savings potential. The natural gas savings potential for RCx is very attractive and significant. For buildings served by natural gas, monetary natural gas savings account…
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One of the most rewarding aspects of our business is ensuring people get it right and customers get the legitimate energy and monetary savings they should be receiving. My answer to “why should we pick you?” is: we are passionate about what we do; we get things right; and we want to make a difference – improve things. The problem occurs when others don’t give a rip about these things. Michaels’ primary thrust in the evaluation arena is impact evaluation, which is – what difference does the program make? The questions are (1) what is happening versus what would have…
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Last week I described a hypothetical, unethical scam to achieve a desired outcome, which leads up to this week’s rant, which I didn’t have space for last week. I first came across this in The Wall Street Journal editorial page. The Heartland institute, which I had never heard of, or at best I forgot about, is a global-warming-crisis skeptic. From the horse’s mouth, they believe global warming is real, that man contributes, but they are skeptics of the alarmism and the magnitude of man’s impacts. They are a privately funded non-profit and yes, they get money from big oil just…
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There are a number of things any respectable consulting firm simply does not allow – because there is no good, reasonable, defensible, or Hail Mary excuse. For example, there are proposal deadlines or interviews with contract selection committees for big projects. As long as there is reasonable time to prepare a proposal there is no excuse to ask for an extension or plead forgiveness for an inept, disheveled pile of dung. Reasonable preparatory time for a straight forward project not requiring subs might be four weeks. A more substantial project in the $1-2 million range requiring subs should get six…
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