Increasingly customers, investors, and regulators expect businesses to pay as much attention to their environmental and societal sustainability as their financial model. Energy auditing has been around since the 1970s but has recently increased in popularity due to the new tax incentives and rebates. In reality, energy audits empower businesses by providing them with the data to understand their business in more detail. The best businesses will use this information to capture some of the competitive advantages.
So, what is an energy audit?
Now more than ever business owners are interested in upgrading their facilities to be more energy efficient and to help them lower the cost of their monthly energy bills. An energy audit helps in energy cost optimization, pollution control, safety aspects and suggests the methods improve the operating and maintenance practices of the system. An energy audit is an assessment of how energy efficient your building is, and what repairs or updates are needed to make that structure more energy efficient
While on the one hand, it is vital to minimize the purchase prices of the various energy carriers, on the other hand, it is important to understand why and how energy is used, so as to reduce and optimize consumption.
What are the objectives of an energy audit?
The energy audit provides the vital information base for overall energy conservation program covering essentially energy utilization analysis and evaluation of energy conservation measures.
- Assessing present pattern of energy consumption in different cost centers of operations
- Relating energy inputs and production output
- Identifying potential areas of the thermal and electrical energy economy.
- Highlighting wastage in major areas
- Fixing of energy saving potential targets for individual cost centers
- Implementation of measures of energy conservation and realization of savings.
What purpose does an energy audit serve?
The purpose of an energy audit is to analyze the energy flows in a building and understand its energy dynamics. During the energy audit, the auditor looks for opportunities to reduce the amount of energy input into the building without negatively affecting the output(s). Beyond simply identifying the sources of energy use, an energy audit seeks to prioritize the energy uses according to the greatest to least cost effective opportunities for energy savings.
Conducting the audit
The process of conducting an energy audit can be very simple. First, the energy auditor will obtain the energy bills for a minimum of 1 year for the building. The current energy data is used to create a baseline and establish what the current energy costs are. Next, the auditor conducts a room-by-room inspection of the building. During the room-by-room inspection, the auditor examines energy consuming items as well as areas that waste energy. With the new information obtained during the inspection, the auditor then calculates the current energy usage and proposed energy savings and document the findings in a summary report.
Why should you get an energy audit?
An energy audit can help you to save money by pointing out areas of weakness and showing you how to best increase the energy efficiency at your company. You could potentially save hundreds of dollars a year by making energy efficient repairs to your workplace.
By completing a thorough investigation and making repairs, you can save your company a lot of money and make your workplace more energy efficient.
