Are your buildings optimized to save you real money?

While energy management may not be top-of-mind for many building owners and operators these days as we try to deal with sanitation and keeping our buildings clean and free of COVID-19, this time is going to really showcase the opportunity that many buildings have if they were to deploy energy efficiency measures. 

We’ve never had a time like this where many of our buildings have been forced to shut down. Many of the U.S. Governors started shutting down their States and territories in mid-march. Schools were closed in Ohio on March 16th, and the official “Stay at home” order was issued. 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-stay-at-home-order.html

If the building’s were truly shut down, properly, we should see those changes reflected in our monthly utility costs. If you have not looked at your most recent bill within the last few weeks or coming in the next few weeks, I would highly encourage you to do that. You should expect to see a significant difference in bill for April than you did for the bill in March.

When you look at the real-time data, it’s pretty clear that things have been shut off. Many utilities will offer this information to their clients through a variety of means. The visibility it provides is invaluable in ensuring that the building is operating the way it was expected – in this case we just want it shut down as much as humanly possible.

In the examples below, we examine two High Schools in the JadeTrack portfolio. We’ve hidden any identifying information, but wanted to demonstrate the importance of proper shutdowns and operating schedules. Taking a look at the month of March, we can clearly see that the first building shut down all of it’s equipment. In the second image, the building did see a reduced amount of load, but it was operating with a baseline schedule that looks occupied. 

We like these representations because they highlight the importance of orchestrated energy management. The building automation systems may not be telling you the whole story; the same goes for your utility bill. In order to unlock the most efficiency in your building, you really need to have a good understanding of both your bill and the building. 

Both of these schools have building automation systems.

Simple little things make a huge difference in your monthly operating costs. We’ve got another example here where a short cycling chiller was costing them $1500 a month. The before and after visualization is extremely powerful. 

If you’ve not tried to tackle building optimization in the past. Now is a great time to do it. You’re going need to evaluate many different pieces of data, and determine the best plan of action for you building. 

Many facility managers try to estimate savings based on an averaged electric rate, i.e., annual electric spend divided by annual kWh. However, such a number may obscure the fastest rising cost component: monthly peak demand charges, measured in dollars per kW (or kilo-volt-amperes, kVA).

This charge is like a monthly speeding ticket, based solely on the highest speed you drove during that time. In some areas, peak demand charges now account for 30 to 60 percent of a facility’s annual electric spend. When projecting energy cost savings, failing to separately account for kW peak demand and kWh consumption may result in erroneous results, and a lot of questions from the C-suite.