Energy Audits

Powering Tomorrow - Understand Your Energy Use So That You Can Manage It

Energy audits have been increasing in popularity among institutional and commercial facilities. They offer a practical means of reducing the energy consumption of buildings that maintenance and engineering managers can apply to existing buildings at a relatively low cost. The American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineering (ASHRAE) has developed three levels of energy audits all available with PowerSource:

Level 1: Pre-Feasibility Audit

Also referred to as a walk-through energy audit, this audit level is characterized by:

Rapid assessment of building energy systems
Building energy benchmarking & rule of thumb savings calculations
High-level definition of energy system optimization
Outlining applicable incentive programs
Develop a target list for more significant investment options
Define scope for a more detailed audit

If you need a general idea of how much energy you could seek to save through energy opportunities, this is the audit level.

Level 2: Operational Energy Audit

The operational or detailed energy audit is geared towards delivering more details to a person or facility with a more committed energy management program but who may not be looking at extensive expenditure on replacing major equipment and services. The audit characteristics include:

Detailed survey of systems and operations
Breakdown of energy source and end use
Identification of EE/RE options for each system
Range of savings and costs for each measure
Spotlight on operational discrepancies

Level 3: Investment-Grade Audit

The investment grade audit - IGA, is focused on longer term energy processes and usually focuses on in-depth energy analysis of equipment efficiencies and capital expenditure opportunities with associated financing options and ROI. This audit level is very involved with organizational finance and decision team and is characterized by:

Longer term data collection and energy analysis
Whole-building computer simulation calibrated with field data
Accurate modeling of sustainable energy measures and power/energy response
Bid-level construction cost estimates