Michaels Energy

Daylighting is a relatively simple concept: use natural daylight to illuminate a building. However, it is a greatly underemployed resource that is available for nearly every new facility.

Although local codes may require a minimum ambient light level in an office, it is possible to provide adequate ambient light with only 10 foot-candles provided contrast and glare are minimized.

Effective daylight harvesting does not include direct sunlight blazing into the workspace where the glare is so intense the occupant has to rearrange the furniture to see things comfortably.

A massive conversion of 4 billion sockets to CFLs will result in a huge avoidance of power plant construction. With each operating bulb resulting in 50 Watts of savings

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.