Best Business/Industry Energy Conservation Tips:

1. Keep track of your energy usage and energy costs each year. Learn more about your equipment and how much energy each piece of equipment may use.
2. Use energy efficient flourescent and ballast lighting; use few, if any
3. Install the right number of lights.
4. Use high pressure sodium parking lot lights and efficient exit signs.
5. Install timers or photoelectric controls for indoor/outdoor lighting.
6. Install occupancy sensors.
7. Plan for sufficient insulation for roof and walls.
8. Use light colors both inside and out.
9. Use trees to shield building from winds and sun heat - if appropriate, use slope of land to shield building from winds and for insulation.
10. Use overhangs to shield windows from the sun.
11. Install thermal windows with adjustable shades, blinds, or reflective film.
12. Use caulking and weather-stripping where appropriate around doors and windows.
13. Use entrance vestibules with revolving or double sets of doors when possible.
14. Install an energy efficient hot water system.
15. Place the water heater near the main point of use.
16. Insulate the hot water pipes.
17. Install an efficient HVAC system, with enough zones for flexibility.
18. Install a programmable thermostat that goes down to 50 degrees.
19. Make sure heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units are not oversized and are air tight.
20. Install energy efficient machines and equipment.
21. For optimum energy control, install an EMS (Energy Management System).

Basic Rules for Reducing Energy Consumption by Machines*

No matter what the specific of your use of process energy, the following may be the key to significant energy savings:

1. Turn it off whenever possible
2. Don't forget the "hidden" machines and equipment - the almost silent computer, the photocopier in the little room down the hall, the elevator motor at the top of the shaft.
3. Adjust controls to a temperature, speed, or other setting that uses less energy but still does the job properly.
4. Use your equipment more efficiently - for example, load it to capacity rather than to partial loads.
5. Clean, tune and adjust, lubricate, replace worn parts, and otherwise maintain the equipment.
6. Don't create unnecessary problems - for example, don't release process heat inside your building where the air conditioning system must then cool it.
7. Manage your electricity use to avoid high demand charges. This is a very important thing to do if you use lots of electricy for process energy. While it is not truly an energy conservation process in that you still may use the same amount of electricity, it can decrease your electric bills.
8. When equipment that is worn out must be replaced, choose the most energy-efficient replacement, properly sized to meet the needs of the job.
9. If cost justified, do a major overhaul to make equipment more energy-efficient.
10. If cost justified, replace equipment that still operates with more energy-efficient equipment.
11. Install new automatic controls, if cost justified.
12. Consider using waste heat to advantage - for example, excess process heat may be used to help warm the building or heat water, or even used to create steam and electricity.

* How to Reduce Your energy costs, 3rd Edition, Advantage Publications and Insights

Energy Saving Potentials

Reducing energy use by machines may be an especially important part of your energy saving efforts - In some offices all of the energy savings created by using more efficient lighting and HVAC can be more than offset by the increased energy used by a single new computer and its printer!

Energy Wasted "Standing By"

Office machines use energy to do one or more of the following: Move something (e.g., a piece of paper through a copier); heat something (e.g., the toner in a copier); and cool the machine (most have a fan to keep air circulating to dissipate the heat from the motor and heating element). So they cost you energy dollars for their operation, and the heat they throw off adds to the air conditioning load.

But how much of the time are they doing any work? If you think about it, many machines that are kept running are actually used relatively little; frequently they are only "standing by" waiting to be used, or they are left on unnecessarily when the area is unoccupied.

While there are many techniques for saving energy in lighting, heating, and air conditioning, there's basically one way to save energy used by your present office machines: turn them off when not needed.

Make sure that machines are turned off at the start of unoccupied hours (e.g., nights, weekends, etc.) and that machines which really don't need to be kept running all the time are turned off during work hours if they will not be needed for some period of time. However, if warm-up and start-up procedures are time consuming or complex, in the interests of productivity it will make more sense to keep the machines running at all times so they are immediately available for use. If there is a choice of a small or a large machine to turn on and use or keep running (e.g., a photocopier), select the smaller one.

When buying machines consider their size and energy use when making a selection; low energy use in stand-by mode is a desirable feature. Look for the Energy Star Label identifying personal computers, monitors, printers, copiers, and fax machines that meet EPA energy efficiency standards. This equipment can enter a low power "sleep" mode when not in use and can awaken automatically when needed again.

If you are going to be considering an energy management system (EMS) it may be able to control off-times for some of your machines as well as the HVAC, lighting and other energy users.

Simple HVAC Maintainance Jobs

• Make sure your thermostats give true readings.
• Lock your thermostats if necessary.
• Replace air filters regularly.
• Inspect duct work and repair leaks - large and small.

Hire an Expert

The best way to spend your investment dollars could probably be to hire an expert to:

• Analyze those parts of your energy systems which you don't understand;
• Explain possible energy savers, including changes in control settings, modifications to your lighting, and new controls or equipment that would be more efficient;
• Estimate potential costs and energy savings, and
• Actually adjust your existing equipment to save you energy dollars immediately (For example, testing and tuning your HVAC equipment.).

Reduce Demand Charges

The demand charge you pay is calculated on the basis of your highest energy demand over a short period of time - 15 minute intervals during the month. You are billed accordingly for the cost of maintaining extra generating capacity so the provider can meet your demand at any time during the entire month.

To reduce peak demand, you will want to do a some Electrical Load Planning and Management. What this means is simply scheduling the use of electrical equipment to get the work done at the lowest possible electric load at any one time. For instance, if you have electric dryers, electric ranges, parking lot lights, air conditioners, or other electrical equipment that mught be used simultaneously, you will want to see if you can schedule their use at different times of the day and night to minimize peak loads. Knowledge of how much power each piece of equipment uses, along with some experimentation, should give you some ideas.

To do the scheduling, you may need an EMS (Energy Management System) or demand controllers for individual pieces of equipment. Some investment is required, but the returns can be very high. On the other hand, by pinpointing the major causes of your demand charges, you may find that a major reduction can be achieved just by simple manual rescheduling of the use of a few pieces of equipment.

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