EcoNexus ®
Guaranteed Energy Savings
The Need to Understand Energy Usage
Buildings are an exceptionally costly investment. Building owners/managers must invest in long-term performance while reducing operating costs. In today’s environment, Facility Managers are faced with several significant challenges as they struggle to manage the needs of their organization. They are facing increasing costs for energy, service and maintenance. They are constantly looking for ways to streamline their operations and reduce costs. Saving energy begins with reducing demand. A facility owner may have opportunities for several types of worthwhile investments that might be made in a facility, but only funds available for one or two of them. Identifying retrofits that give the biggest and fastest ROI is required. It must provide granularity to quickly determine energy efficiency problems.
People measure and analyze the energy performance of buildings for many reasons. Comparisons of energy use may be made among companies, multiple corporate offices, individual buildings, or systems within a building.
Many energy-efficiency measures do not require additional first costs. Those measures that do result in higher first costs often create savings realized from lower energy use over the building lifetime, downsized equipment, reduced mechanical space needs and utility rebates. These savings can dwarf the increased first costs. Payback periods for many off-the-shelf energy efficiency measures are generally short. The first step is to identify these energy efficiency measures.
Regulations
Building owners/managers are striving to achieve building performance relative to code (ASHRAE Standard 90 or California’s Title 24). They are working with USGBC to achieve LEED certifications to meet these regulations.
Energy Usage Visibility
Visibility is the key to smart money-saving decisions. Sub-metering provides the ability to predict savings and prioritize energy savings initiatives. Simply making people aware of how much different activities cost often changes their usage habits. Visibility is where it all starts. Graphic visualization to educate people on what their activities cost is the first step in changing behaviors.
Utility Bill Allocation
Measure how much energy each tenant or department actually uses, and charge them for their portion of the total bill – not based upon square footage. When people have visibility and control over their monthly bill they start to make changes to reduce it. Tenants feel they are being treated fairly, buildings with low energy usage have higher real estate values, and buildings owners are reporting that sites with tenant sub-metering are in greater demand, have higher occupancy levels and yield better returns.
Employee Productivity
Energy-efficiency measures typically result in a more pleasant indoor environment and can increase worker productivity. Forward-thinking businesses are now actively leveraging their facilities as a strategic tool to attract and retain employees.
Building owners/managers are striving to achieve building performance relative to code (ASHRAE Standard 90 or California’s Title 24). They are working with USGBC to achieve LEED certifications to meet these regulations.
Energy Usage Visibility
Visibility is the key to smart money-saving decisions. Sub-metering provides the ability to predict savings and prioritize energy savings initiatives. Simply making people aware of how much different activities cost often changes their usage habits. Visibility is where it all starts. Graphic visualization to educate people on what their activities cost is the first step in changing behaviors.
Utility Bill Allocation
Measure how much energy each tenant or department actually uses, and charge them for their portion of the total bill – not based upon square footage. When people have visibility and control over their monthly bill they start to make changes to reduce it. Tenants feel they are being treated fairly, buildings with low energy usage have higher real estate values, and buildings owners are reporting that sites with tenant sub-metering are in greater demand, have higher occupancy levels and yield better returns.
Employee Productivity
Energy-efficiency measures typically result in a more pleasant indoor environment and can increase worker productivity. Forward-thinking businesses are now actively leveraging their facilities as a strategic tool to attract and retain employees.
Cost of Wasted Energy and Equipment Maintenance
Reducing the cost of wasted energy saves money. Lighting and equipment left on at night is costly. Many companies even find cooling and heating systems running at the same time. Identifying power waste and shifting non time-critical usage to non-peak hours can add up to significant savings. Systems with real time anomaly notification can also help you take immediate corrective action on things like lights or equipment left on unnecessarily.
Peak Demand Optimization
Energy rates for commercial and industrial buildings are based in part on maximum usage level (also called peak demand). If peak demand goes up even once during the year, the energy rate for the next 12 months also goes up. Companies save money by learning when their peak demands are occurring and what factors are contributing. In many cases there are easy things that can be done to lower your peak demand, ranging from changing the times equipment is run to putting air conditioners on timers so they stagger or run at off-peak times. The first step is measuring what's going on so you know both when and where to look.
Utility Plan Changes
Ability to understand and prove energy consumption patterns help consumers secure better pricing on energy contracts. Coincident peak demand billing contracts can reduce your overall peak demand costs. Having the visibility and capacity to participate in demand response programs pays consumers for helping utilities manage loads during peak times. Result is lower and more stable energy prices.
Reducing the cost of wasted energy saves money. Lighting and equipment left on at night is costly. Many companies even find cooling and heating systems running at the same time. Identifying power waste and shifting non time-critical usage to non-peak hours can add up to significant savings. Systems with real time anomaly notification can also help you take immediate corrective action on things like lights or equipment left on unnecessarily.
Peak Demand Optimization
Energy rates for commercial and industrial buildings are based in part on maximum usage level (also called peak demand). If peak demand goes up even once during the year, the energy rate for the next 12 months also goes up. Companies save money by learning when their peak demands are occurring and what factors are contributing. In many cases there are easy things that can be done to lower your peak demand, ranging from changing the times equipment is run to putting air conditioners on timers so they stagger or run at off-peak times. The first step is measuring what's going on so you know both when and where to look.
Utility Plan Changes
Ability to understand and prove energy consumption patterns help consumers secure better pricing on energy contracts. Coincident peak demand billing contracts can reduce your overall peak demand costs. Having the visibility and capacity to participate in demand response programs pays consumers for helping utilities manage loads during peak times. Result is lower and more stable energy prices.
EcoNexus can help identify energy efficiency measures with highest ROI and quickest payback time
EcoNexus® provides a solution to measure, monitor and identify energy hogs in commercial, industrial and municipal buildings. Saving energy begins with reducing demand. EcoNexus solution provides granularity to quickly determine energy efficiency problems and identify energy efficiency measures with the biggest and fastest ROI. The solution has been designed to compare / analyze building performance across global corporate offices, multiple buildings in a single complex and individual buildings, or systems within a building. The graphical user interface provides real-time visualization of energy usage, seasonal trends and provides immediate feedback on control changes to mechanical systems.
Financial analysis for an energy management system:
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