Energy Audit | Benchmarking

Identify Your Biggest Energy Wasters

Energy Star Benchmarking

Unless you are Benchmarking the Energy Usage in your building, either against your own historical energy usage or other buildings of a similar kind, you cannot possibly know if your building is energy efficient or not.

Energy Benchmarking is now law in Washington, DC.  The DC Council passed the Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 which includes the benchmarking requirement.  The law requires commercial property owners to produce an Energy Star efficiency score of all buildings over 50,000 sf.  These reports will be made available to the public. In fact a recent article in a local newspaper, mentioned the building with the lowest rating in the city!!

Case Study:  We, at R.M. Thornton, Inc., performed an Energy Star Benchmarking survey on our building over a year ago and found we had a rating of 66.  We wanted a better rating and to save on utility costs.  Over the past year, we installed an innovative heat pump system for hydronic space heating/cooling, a tankless domestic HW heater, interior storm windows, and painted the roof silver.  We were able to raise our rating to a 75.  The lesson learned here is that you can only manage what you measure, so by measuring our energy star rating we have been able to benchmark our progress toward our improvement goals!!!

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Identify Your Biggest Energy Wasters

Energy benchmarking program for buildings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know how your building stacks up?  If you own multiple buildings, where are your best opportunities for savings?  Our benchmarking service is an efficient, cost-effective means to identify the energy pigs.  It’s the first step down the path to increased profitability and asset value through lower operating costs.

Benchmarking Program Benefits

Calculate the aggregate value of your energy waste

You first need to know if the problem is large enough to warrant attention.   Our experience, as well as national statistics, indicates that it is.  But, benchmarking will quantify the value of the problem for your building(s).

Know where to attack

How can you begin an energy reduction program without knowing where to start?  Once we identify your lowest performers, you’ll know where to focus attention.

Take steps to earn ENERGY STAR certification

A nationally recognized mark of excellence in building performance, the ENERGY STAR label will increase the value of your building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Whether you are running a grocery store, a school, or an office building, getting the most out of your energy dollars — while reducing your carbon footprint — just makes sense.”

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson

 

Action Plan

Getting started is simple and the solution to helping you get the best performance out of your building is straightforward.

Typically, the process would include:

• Initial meeting
• Equipment survey
• Building performance assessment
• Preliminary recommendations
• Program recommendation
• Implementation schedule
• Performance review