How to Lower Your Company's Energy Bills
How to use less energy and lower your business's utility bills
You changed the light bulbs and lowered the thermostat -- and for a long time, that was enough. Reducing energy use was traditionally for environmental crusaders. But energy costs have been rising in recent years and new taxes are on the horizon, so every business has reason to become more efficient.
Fortunately, opportunities to save energy -- and money -- are closer at hand than most people realize. And now is the time to act: Some of the green tax incentives enacted as part of recent stimulus bills expire in a year or two. These pages will introduce you to measures that can pay for themselves, and then some, in a few years or sooner. There are other benefits, too: Green buildings tend to be more comfortable, which improves morale, boosts productivity, and lowers turnover.
Successfully reducing energy use demands a commitment from company leaders to set goals and follow through. "Low hanging fruit is easy to find," says Betsy Dutrow, of the EPA's Energy Star program, "but it grows back if you don't have good practices and procedures in place."
These pages make reference to payback time for energy-saving investments. We use what is known as the simple method: total investment divided by annual savings, using average energy prices. The calculations do not include the time value of money or tax incentives. Consider these as you draw your conclusions.
Finding Efficiencies
1. Change Your Habits
Many people think new gizmos are the secret to reining in energy use, but that's not necessarily the case. "The way the buildings are managed and operated can have an even bigger impact than the technology in the building," says Doug Gatlin, of the U.S. Green Building Council. Before undertaking a retrofit, mine your day-to-day operations for substantial savings.
Benchmark energy consumption. Before you begin, you have to know your starting point. This is something you can figure out for yourself, but many companies can get free government assistance. The EPA's Energy Star program (energystar.gov) offers a set of tools called Portfolio Manager to help you gauge your energy and water use and has developed spreadsheets ("energy performance indicators") that allow manufacturers in certain industries to judge their own consumption.
Recommission building systems. Commissioning, which simply means making sure building systems are running as designed, is an essential part of building construction -- and because these systems degrade over time, they must be periodically retested. Such re- (or retro-) commissioning pays huge dividends, says a recent Department of Energy-sponsored study: a 15 percent reduction in energy use at a cost of just 27 cents per square foot, for a payback time of less than nine months.
Commissioning entails an analysis and a tune-up, and usually requires the services of an energy auditor. Systems also have to be maintained and recommissioned every three to five years. (Renters should ask landlords to undertake recommissioning.)
Undertake preventive maintenance. A simple example: Change light bulbs (lamps, in energy-efficiency-business lingo) simultaneously at regular intervals, not as each burns out. Fluorescent bulbs degrade, and fixtures with burned-out bulbs draw power. A group relamping when the bulbs reach about 80 percent of their rated life will save money on both energy and labor.
2. Renovate Your Workspace
Commercial facilities. How you retrofit a building depends on how it's configured and operated, as well as its location. Ideally, renovations would be simultaneous, because efficiencies multiply when retrofits are coordinated. But when that's not possible, follow this order:
Start with lighting. Overhead lighting is the biggest electricity hog in the typical commercial building, and the traditional T12 (1.5-inch) fluorescent tube dates from the 1930s. Moreover, the heat generated by such bulbs taxes the building's cooling system. Replace the lamps with newer high-performance T8 (1-inch) tubes and the fixture's magnetic ballasts (which regulate current to the bulb) with electronic ones, and you will reduce the electric load 42 percent, according to the energy analysts at E Source. New lenses and reflectors on the fixtures will reduce energy consumption 71 percent. Daylight dimming controls and occupancy sensors reduce the load 83 percent and have a payback of just 3.3 years.
Reduce supplemental loads. Inefficient office equipment does not just suck more electricity; like lighting, it also warms the interior space. Highly efficient Energy Star equipment and appliances often carry no cost premium but use 20 percent to 50 percent less energy. Train employees to use energy-saving features and to turn off equipment at the end of the day.
Seal out the elements. Window improvements can be as simple as coating the glass with a heat-blocking film or installing shades, or as involved as wholesale replacement with windows that block the sun, insulate against the ambient temperature, or both. A so-called cool roof uses highly reflective materials to lower the surface temperature by up to 100 degrees. This treatment makes the most sense in a low building and in a sunny climate. Go to Energy Star's roofcalc.com to estimate a cool roof's savings.
Reengineer the HVAC. The retrofits will probably reduce the building's heating and cooling requirements -- and builders traditionally install oversize systems even though air conditioning operates most efficiently at full power. The upshot: You can probably upgrade to a smaller system that uses less energy. Today's heating and cooling units are up to 40 percent more efficient than those built 20 years ago. If you cannot replace yours, improve it with a variable speed drive that controls motor speed (see below).
