The top 5 places where your business is probably wasting energy (and money)

Article

Jun 2

By: Trevor Campbell

At Foresight, our engineering team has helped hundreds of manufacturing facilities around the world pinpoint the best places to reduce their energy use — and their utility bills. While every organization is different, here’s our top five tips for facility managers to instantly impact costs, carbon, and efficiency.

Switch to LED lighting
Switching to LEDs is the first thing you should do if you're looking to save energy or decarbonize your buildings. This one-time cost will save an immense amount of energy and carries an impressive payoff. If you’ve already upgraded to LED lighting, take the next step to invest in occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, or lighting schedules to further optimize your electricity use.
Examine HVAC systems
Next, take a look at your HVAC system. Pay attention to the hours it operates, the age and maintenance schedule of the equipment, and whether there are control settings for all of the units. In some cases, we find facilities aren’t running the right equipment or quantities, which increases costs both operationally and mechanically. As building use changes over time, these systems are often overlooked or taken for granted. It’s critical that your HVAC unit meets your specific needs to avoid unnecessary costs, so have an engineering professional come take a look.
Inspect compressed air systems
Referred to as the fourth utility, these systems can account for up to half a facility’s utility spend, and often, they're not well maintained. Wear, tear, and time inevitably lead to leaks in the valves, stems, and hoses that are not audible to the naked ear. While conducting Compressed Air Leak Studies, we use ultrasonic detectors to identify leaks in your system. We typically identify 10–50% energy savings resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in annual energy costs and taxes. In most cases, local utilities have rebate programs to cover the costs of fixing leaks (and you can even hire us to coordinate those for you!). We recommend annual compressed air leak studies to ensure your system is running efficiently and you’re not throwing money out the window.
Assess process heating & cooling
HVAC systems are used to heat and cool spaces for occupant comfort but can also be involved in heating or cooling manufacturing processes. Some manufacturing processes require a certain temperature, like paint curing. Other pieces of equipment generate a lot of heat and need to be cooled down, requiring a chiller that cools a water loop. These processes are often very energy intensive, so it’s critical to have your HVAC system tuned appropriately.
Optimize your operations

Finally, it’s important to think about how efficiently you use your facility. Are you shutting processes off when you should? Are you considering utility factors like peak demand charges? Are you thinking about your energy spend holistically across the building or section by section? Having an outside partner evaluate your operations for energy efficiency and cost savings can identify opportunities you might not be considering.

Get Started with a Facility Energy Audit

A Facility Energy Audit, otherwise referred to as an “energy treasure hunt” or “energy assessment”, is critical in understanding how your facility uses energy, as well as, how much wasted energy and wasted costs there are in your building. An energy audit will empower your team to fully understand the behavioral, operational, and technical energy and cost opportunities in your building.

What’s included in an audit?

At Foresight, we offer energy audits at multiple levels and price points, making this an accessible service for any company looking to make progress in energy efficiency.

Level 1 – A Level 1 audit is an energy walkthrough to identify low-cost or no-cost opportunities.

Level 2 – A Level 2 audit outlines all possible Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), providing detailed cost analysis, energy conservation estimations, rebates or sales tax opportunities, and operational considerations.

Level 3 – A Level 3 audit provides a fully calibrated energy model to predict energy use, costs, and risk in highly complex facilities.

With an understanding of your facility and goals, we’ll help you pick the right level audit for your needs.

How much money will be saved?

In 99% of cases, our team of utility and energy experts identify cost savings than more than cover our services. Energy audits typically result in 5-25% identified energy savings, while Compressed Air Leak Studies, specifically, result in 10-50% identified cost savings. Check out this case study about one facility who identified over $100,000 in one time tax rebates and $19,000-$25,000 in annual savings after an audit.