Steps to Saving Energy & Money
You are interested in saving energy, money, and
improving the bottom line of your business, but where do
you start?
Step 1. Current Utility
Use The first step is identifying where you currently
are, meaning how much energy is your company using and
what is it costing. Understanding how the cost is
calculated from the energy and demand use is a good
start to understanding how decreasing your demand,
consumption, or both will affect the monthly bills. See
this “Primer on Energy Rates and Bills” for an
explanation.
Step 2. Walk-through Audit
Utility data already collected, interviews with
operating personnel, production data, inventories of
energy using equipment, and operating schedules all come
together to paint a picture of how energy is being used
in your facility. By comparing the picture to how
equipment or systems “should” be operating or comparing
it to typical energy use for a similar process or
facility, areas of waste might become apparent.
Depending on the complexity of your facility, and your
in-house resources, it might make more sense to use an
outside provider to assist you with the walk-through
Audit. See the
Assistance Section for resources.
Step 3. Identify Opportunities
If you have identified areas of energy waste after Steps
1 and 2, you are now ready to figure out how to minimize
the waste and save money. Maybe simply turning off
lights or equipment when they are not needed is the
perfect solution. Maybe you are replacing equipment and
it is a good time to look at a more energy-efficient
option. Maybe controlling a process better would save
energy and increase the quality of your product. For
some ideas of possible projects, visit the
Recommendations
by Sector and
Energy Efficiency Measures sections of this guide.
Step 4. Crunch the Numbers
Now that you have identified possible projects, do they
make sense to implement? Potential energy savings,
project cost, and change in maintenance or other
operating costs are estimated to determine if the
project makes financial sense. Let’s look at a simple
example:
You currently have 100 4-lamp, T12 fluorescent
lighting fixtures with magnetic ballasts that use 144
Watts per fixture.
You would like to retrofit them to 100 4-lamp, T8
fluorescent lighting fixtures with electronic ballasts
that use 102 Watts per fixture.
The 100 fixtures are usually on from 8 am to 5 pm, 5
days a week.
You also have a quote from a contractor to retrofit
the fixtures for $6,500.
Demand savings per fixture:
Demand savings for retrofit project:
Annual Hours of Operation:
Consumption savings for retrofit project:
Cost savings for retrofit project:
Assume the rate schedule is $0.0265 per kWh and
$11.63 per kW each month, with 6.6% taxes. See the
“Primer on Energy
Rates and Bills” if you would like to learn more
about how rate structures work.
What is the simple payback of the project using
the estimated savings and the contractor’s quote?
This calculation is a simple example of estimating
energy and cost savings and comparing it to the project
investment. For simplicity, it ignores savings
associated with lowering cooling costs and raising
heating costs, both of which are modest in this case.
Depending on your project and how your company makes
financial decisions, you might want help with the
calculations. See the
Assistance page
for resources.
Step 5. Get it Done
Depending on the project(s), the actual implementation
process could vary. Maybe you have the financing and the
capability in-house to complete the project. Maybe the
project requires some outside expertise in the form of
design, installation, commissioning, or financing. The
Assistance page
of this guide will help you identify the right level of
assistance for your situation as well as give you
general resources. |
