If you haven’t tuned into the fact that wasting energy means wasting money, now is your chance! This newsletter is full of great info to help you save money while saving the planet at the same time, whether you are a building owner or a tenant.
Conserving the Bottom Line through Energy Conservation
Businesses that monitor energy use can save hundreds of thousands of dollars on operating costs. The unit on which the price of electricity is based is the kilowatt-hour (kwh). One kwh cost about 3 cents in Sept. 2000, but that jumped to 10 cents by September 2005. And the price of the Therm, or the amount of natural gas equivalent to 100,000 British Thermal Units, increased from an average of 49 cents in 2002 to about 89 cents in 2005.
These unit changes can mean big dollars for businesses that use large quantities of energy. A business that takes proactive steps to reduce energy use can mitigate potentially catastrophic blows to its bottom line.
A key element to trimming an energy bill is to analyze a firm's peak usage. Most utilities base their fee on the 15 minutes in which a business's power use is at its maximum.
By monitoring usage to reduce peaks and valleys, a firm can still use the same amount of energy at a fraction of the cost.
In addition to conducting an energy-use profile, you can implement cost-cutting techniques such as installing automated controls; instituting policy-changes on energy use for employees; conducting an audit of energy bills to identify errors; and taking advantage of state- and utility-funded, efficiency-upgrade incentives.
Organizations that implement across-the-board reforms can cut energy costs by up to 25 percent. The key is having a goal that's measurable, repeatable, and sustainable.
Efficiency incentives are readily available to firms that know where to find them.
For instance, millions of dollars are available to spur energy-efficient new construction and equipment purchases through NYSERDA's New York Energy $mart program. And NYSERDA will pay 50 percent of costs, up to $50,000, for technical assistance to reduce energy use. NYSERDA has contracts with 35 engineering firms to conduct energy-feasibility studies, energy-operations-management studies, renewable-generation evaluations, rate analyses, and evaluations for the potential savings of aggregate energy purchases.
Small businesses that team up with the other firms in their office building can save on utilities. Some firms access energy savings by setting up a panel of organizations interested in purchasing aggregate energy with fellow businesses.
While there may be financing available for making energy improvements, most companies don't need it. The program won’t usually require outside costs. Eliminating energy and money drains in an energy system creates a brand new cash flow to get started with the bigger stuff.
The Facts about Saving Energy in Office Buildings
Commercial office building tenants breathe a sigh of relief when mild summer weather reduces utility costs from their heights in the winter. But you can still continue to review the energy efficiency of your operations to lower costs and boost profitability.
At first glance, the task may seem easy. People today can pick the latest in fluorescent lighting, electronic controls and heating and cooling equipment. Technological advances put their energy efficiency well beyond that of similar equipment made just 10 years ago.
But when you really start looking at it, making the right choices seems complex. Most building managers and owners are not electrical engineers, making it difficult to assess true energy savings from a piece of equipment. This complicates the job of evaluating vendors' bids and getting a reasonably accurate figure on cost savings.
With owners' bills for efficiency improvements sometimes running a few hundred thousand dollars, uncertainty over savings can torpedo a deal. And with conservation potentially reducing the fees that tenants pay for escalating utility costs, the owner may not receive the entire benefit.
Risk is a huge factor, not knowing what 50 cents a square foot in energy savings means to them. Building owners can hire a firm to audit their energy use and then engineer, design, install and arrange financing for efficiency projects. With the goal of curbing consumption, many large office buildings have undertaken some energy efficiency projects, from new lighting to better controls. Large buildings have the potential to reduce consumption up to 25% with the right technology.
Boosting efficiency has become more common across the country:
* Fewer buildings light 100% of their space when occupied, and more buildings turn off' all their lights when closed. More buildings use efficient compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. And electronic ballasts for fluorescent bulbs have surged in popularity over their less efficient magnetic counterparts.
* More buildings package their heating and air-conditioning units—these are all-in-one units that serve the entire building and save more energy than individual office heaters and air conditioners.
* More buildings also have electronic controls to vary air volumes and heating and cooling cycles to achieve the right temperatures while wasting little energy. Building managers have also stepped up maintenance of heating and cooling units to prevent waste.
Controlling temperature has become more critical as the number of personal computers has grown since 1995. Today's offices feature fewer square feet per worker, intensifying the combination of body heat and computer equipment heat. This increased load factor, or the amount of heat an air conditioning unit must expel from the building to control its temperature, makes the units work harder and use more energy.
Companies should regularly audit their building’s energy use, beginning by making sure their electricity rate structure is correct for the building's use. Do an inventory of all systems that consume energy. Once this audit is complete, you can determine if you can replace any systems with the latest technology.
Lighting is the easiest area to remedy, with modern electronic ballasts using fewer bulbs and half the electricity to produce the same or better quality lighting than older fluorescent lighting. The payback periods are sometimes a year to 18 months, which is nothing in the life of the building. Sealing air leaks in a building’s shell is another avenue paved with savings.
Heating and air-conditioning units are more costly to replace, but it may be worth it if the equipment is at the end of its economic life anyway. Regular cleaning of filters and adjustment of fan belts on any system increases operating efficiency and decreases costs. Reducing utility costs, which can run 20% or more of total operating costs, can boost profits and make buildings more competitive in the market, adding value for their owners or potential buyers.
Invested in a computerized energy management system can save money. The system reads thousands of sensors inside and outside the building and analyzes historical data to determine the best times to start and stop the building's chillers, lights and other equipment. While energy management systems can cost $200,000 and higher, the system can pay for itself by cutting energy consumption.
Economics and Environmental Sustainability: A Match Made in Heaven
Long life, loose fit, low energy – these concepts are figuring more and more into the bottom line of many businesses. Long life refers to using long-lasting materials like brick, while loose fit means designing in a way that is versatile, recognizing the fact that the use of a building may evolve, low energy refers to incorporating energy-efficient features into buildings.
The concepts are part of a larger idea called environmental sustainability, which architects say is getting a lot more attention lately. While the idea has been popular in Europe and in other U.S. cities for some time, it has become well-known locally only in the past five years or so. The reason? Economics.
The awareness of environmental sustainability is growing. A large sector pushing sustainability is institutional clients (such as government entities, large corporations and universities) whose physical presence includes many buildings. Almost without exception, institutional clients require the use of recycled materials like synthetic carpet and the incorporation of energy-efficient features in their buildings.
In recent years, environmental concerns have come up for smaller clients as well. There are a lot of people who say that the issues California is going through right now are just the tip of the iceberg – soon everyone will have to address energy efficiency.
Control of heat from the sun is a big part of environmental sustainability. In the South, rule number one is to keep the sun off a building so you don't have solar heat gain. Some other possible investments include solar shades on the outside of a building and insulated, reflective glass. Constructing an energy-efficient building costs a bit more, but saves money in the long run.
Another important component of sustainability is using materials that are built to last. Warehouse districts have great examples of sustainable buildings. They are heavy-duty structures, usually made of brick. They typically have high ceilings, and you can re-arrange the inside, simply moving things around to achieve maximum energy efficiency – replacing solid walls with glass, for example. Some older buildings, built before air conditioning and electricity existed, were designed to be naturally cool and well-lit.
Another sign that consciousness of the importance of sustainability is growing is the emergence of an industry association called the U.S. Green Building Council, which was created in the early 1990s. The council is comprised of architects, engineers, environmental groups, building owners and managers, universities, governmental agencies, and financial and insurance companies.
In 1995, the council established a rating system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) to serve as an overall industry standard for “green” (sustainable) building. The group is working to transform the building industry, so that it takes into account environmental sustainability in new and existing development as a matter of course.
The LEED rating system includes 69 criteria which fall under five categories: site selection, materials and resources, energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality and water efficiency. To be designated “green,” a building must fulfill a minimum of 26 criteria—there are four levels of the designation.
One things that is stressed is the idea that every building doesn't have to do everything, but it has to do enough good things to get the basic minimum number of points. Some buildings fall short of attaining the higher levels because of factors that can't be controlled, like available land on which to build.
Simulation software is now available to help design sustainable buildings. Using computer software that simulates and measures energy consumption, you can try out different options to see the effects. For example, if you have more windows and it's warmer in the summer, how does that affect your air conditioning load and therefore your utility bills? The software will actually simulate the life of the building—just as if you were walking in and turning on the lights. Such software has already been used to design government buildings.
Some architects believe that new construction is, in many cases, unnecessary. The industry needs to take a more broad-based view of sustainability: it's not just constructing buildings with more environmentally friendly materials. For instance, why not build multi-purpose buildings, such as structures that serve as schools, community centers and libraries, depending on the time of day.