Energy consumption..

[messengerhot]

Hello,guys! Im just curious, How do big companies manage their energy consumptions? I heard about this continuous monitoring and energy management, How does it works? Is it really helpful? Thanks!

[SteveinMN]

I'm no expert in it, but I've worked at several big companies which did manage energy consumption because doing so saved them money. There are as many ways to manage energy use as there are companies doing just that. My most recent employer did things like:

- Installed timers and motion sensors on lights so that unoccupied areas outside of work hours got only emergency lighting. There was a phone app you could use to turn on the lights in your area if you came in to the building on "off hours".
- The lights themselves changed over time from incandescents to fluorescents to fluorescents in fixtures with more reflective troffers to LEDs. In fact, the PC folks at the company figured out that even buying new LCD monitors for everyone's PCs would net save money because they used so much less electricity than cathode-ray tube monitors (and heated air-conditioned work areas much less, too).
- In factories, studies were performed to determine if changing temperatures in ovens could save energy. Or if waste product could be used as a fuel for heating or generating steam for heat or electricity.
- Employees who needed a vehicle to do a site visit could get one from a pool maintained by the company (rather than rent one individually). This pool evolved over time, as well, to incorporate hybrid cars. This is not as direct a saving in energy, but by regulating the pool, energy was saved over employees moving their personal trucks from point to point.

There were many more things they did; these just came off the top of my head. Different businesses/industries will find different ways to address the issue. I've seen smaller companies go to four 8-hour days in the office and then a day of working at home so they could close the office for Friday/Saturday/Sunday. I've seen companies install solar arrays or heat pumps or similar energy-capturing technologies. Automation helps a lot as it provides a baseline and helps determine where tweaking energy use has a greater money-saving effect.

[Lainey]

I'd add another one: reduce office footprint. I know of a colleague who said that her corp. employer changed to a "hotel-style" cubicle system, along with a flexible work at home policy. By doing that they were able to reduce their office space from 4 floors to 3 floors, and thereby reducing all related office costs as well.

[Dhiana]

This is some of what my husband does for the us govt. Metering studies, lots of running the numbers, mind numbing (to me!) engineering calculations which thankfully somebody finds interesting

From HVAC(Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) checking the size, age, efficiency, is it balanced properly? To which kind of windows will be most efficient for this building's location taking into consideration the numbers of sunny vs rainy days, latitude, etc. and figuring out the pay back period if replacing windows vs new building. Yup, that professional engineer in the corner crunching numbers saves the gov't millions each year.

Is is worth it to put in a ground source heat pump for something that will then also heat the pool? I think he went out at night a couple times following steam pipes with an infrared(?) camera to look for leaks. Simple repairs to systems can make a huge difference also. He's done a lot of metering studies to calculate usage, then makes recommendations. Sometimes new technology isn't enough of a savings yet to make it worth replacing.

[jp1]

Another bit of low hanging fruit that my company did was to ban space heaters (women were using them in summer because the a/c was too cold) but coupling that with actually having the building engineers work with people to adjust individual workspace temperatures to be more comfortable. In one case they redirected ductwork from one person who was too cold to the next cubicle where the person was always complaining about being too hot. Now no space heater wasting energy, both people are more comfortable, and the building a/c works less hard saving more energy.

[printslicker]

Hello,guys! Im just curious, How do big companies manage their energy consumptions? I heard about this continuous monitoring and energy management, How does it works? Is it really helpful? Thanks!

I've read about a solution and it pertains to increase energy needs. I presume they could provide managing solutions. But, I need to get the details again because I forgot to take note of the company because it was not the one I'm focus right now. Anyway, I'll get back and post a message here if you have not considered one yet. I hope that you will be able to find other good options too.

[messengerhot]

The phone app sounds interesting, It might be helpful for a company that operates 24/7 since other areas of the building are not being used at night,, most companies have fewer employees at night too. It's almost similar to the continuous monitoring and energy management system offered by companies such as Ecova which aims to control power consumption and promote early troubleshooting. What I do not know is if it will be worth it to get their services or just do the monitoring on my own..