Prep your business for winter energy savings

With rising energy costs and environmental concerns in the news almost daily, it’s smarter than ever to lower your business’s energy use.

How much do you pay for heating and water heating?

It depends on your business, but according to the U.S Energy Information Administration, it breaks down like this:

*% of Energy Bill 

Low- and no-cost ways to lower winter energy use

• Try an  online energy assessment  for a free audit of your facility’s energy use and how it compares to similar facilities in your area. You’ll get a customized list of suggested improvements for increasing efficiency, and estimated costs, savings and paybacks.
• Maintain your HVAC system. Regular maintenance is an often-overlooked key to saving on HVAC costs and improving the performance of your system. Although some maintenance jobs may require calling in an outside technician, many can be accomplished inexpensively using in-house staff. Because it also extends the life of your HVAC equipment, regular maintenance provides significant cost savings for minimal investment. Schedule a boiler tune-up annually or at least every two years . View our general tune-up checklist to share with your contractor and ensure you get a thorough tune-up, or see our detailed checklist for maintenance engineers if you do maintenance in-house.
• Install a programmable thermostat if you manually control your facility’s temperature. Significant savings are available by setting back your thermostat when the building is unoccupied. Sample savings are shown below:

• Get more ideas from the Energy Resource Library from E Source.  The Commercial Energy Advisor gives you low- and no-cost steps you can take to operate your facilities more efficiently as well as longer-term solutions you can employ to save energy and money. Operations and Maintenance Advisor details what you can do to improve the performance and energy efficiency of your equipment in five key areas

Improve heating equipment efficiency

If your heating equipment is more than 10 years old, it could use up to 50 percent more natural gas than new models, and it’s less reliable and can have safety problems.

Purchasing Advisor  provides you with an extensive online library of educational information on energy-related products that are often purchased for use in commercial buildings.

Earn efficiency rebates

Discover conservation rebates, programs and resources  for businesses in your area.

General HVAC tune-up checklist

• Clean and replace filters regularly.
• Set back your heating system when the building is unoccupied. This includes setting the fans to “auto” rather than “on”.
• Repair leaks in system components such as pipes, steam traps and couplings.
• Make sure radiators, convectors, air intakes and air diffusers are not obstructed so that air can flow freely.
• Regularly change (or clean if reusable) the HVAC filters with your own do-it-yourself labor for a high return-on-investment.
• During peak cooling or heating season, change or clean your filters every month; they cost about $2 to $3 each. Dirty filters can cost up to $5 a month extra, overwork the equipment and result in dirtier indoor air. Clean or change filters more often if smokers or pollution sources are present.
• Consider purchasing electrostatic filters, which are washable, long lasting, and provide cleaner air.
• Plug noticeable building leaks with weather stripping and caulk; another inexpensive “do-it-yourself” job. Caulking and weather stripping let you manage your ventilation, which is the desirable, deliberately controlled exchange of stuffy inside air for fresher outdoor air. Most commercial buildings require 15-20 cubic feet per minute (cfm) ventilation per person for healthy indoor air. Exceptions and details can be found in “Building Air Quality” at www.epa.gov/iaq.

Detailed checklist for maintenance engineers

• Inspect steam traps monthly.
• Repair all steam leaks.
• Plug all sources of uncontrolled air leaks into the burner section.
• Blowdown boiler only when needed to maintain acceptable water quality.
• For hot water boilers used in a space heating application, reduce water temperature to the lowest temperature that will meet the demand.
• Keep boiler tubes clean on BOTH sides - be sure the burner is correctly adjusted to prevent soot build-up on the fi re side flue gas analysis and use proper water treatment to prevent scale build-up on the water side.
• Audit steam piping systems for problems such as stuck valves, improperly installed components, under-sized and misplaced condensate drains, etc.
• Insulate the deaerator tank and all associated pipes and fittings; maintain the deaerator tank for proper pressure and temperature operation.
• Keep burners in tune to produce optimum combustion.
• Install turbulators in the boiler tubes to increase heat transfer between the combustion gases and the water.
• On small boilers, install automatic vent dampers to reduce fl ue pipe heat loss during the off-cycle.