Energy Management
Major losses with a simple solution to improving energy efficiency
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n a world where Energy isn’t getting any cheaper and where its generation and use is subject to ever increasing environmental scrutiny and legislative requirement, the pressure on us to not only use it efficiently, but also to not waste it, is growing year on year.
insulation may reduce the overall efficiency from source to end by up to 50%, with an additional 10% to 20% in flue losses. On a positive note, the US Department of Energy estimates that following up on the findings of an energy audit of a building’s envelope saves most facilities at least 15% on energy bills.
Reports by the Carbon Trust have shown that up to 20% of a business’s energy costs are due to wasted energy caused by inefficient equipment. So, there are likely to be huge opportunities to save money, especially for larger organisations.
Apart from being motivated to find these losses and fix them, by the obvious financial savings, large businesses need to comply with the statutory regulation “The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)”. In this case a large business is defined as one that employs 250 or more people or has an annual turnover in excess of £39m and an annual balance sheet total in excess of £33.5m.
In addition to that, British Gas Smart Meter data analysis from over 6000 SMEs showed that small businesses use 46% of total electricity between 6pm and 8am. Typical examples of items left on overnight and through the weekend include, vending machines and hot water dispensers, car park and office lighting, display lights in retail units, and office IT equipment, to name just a few. Additional to electrical inefficiency, significant energy loss in a facility can be attributed to the HVAC systems and the “building envelope”. The building envelope is basically what separates the outside environment from the inside; walls, roof, windows, doorways, etc. Carbon Trust data reveals around 60% of office heat is lost through the building fabric.
Compliance was required by 5 December 2015 and this was then extended to 30 June 2016. According to the Carbon Trust there are a few thousand companies that haven’t complied and they potentially face “being slapped with tens of thousands of pounds of potential fines, alongside reputational risks in situations where they are obliged to disclose environmental enforcement notices.” Fortunately, identifying electrical usage over time in areas of a facility, or specifically monitoring consumption of a particular
Research in the USA and Canada, similarly developed nations to our own, identified that heat loss due to poor or missing pipe
item, has been significantly simplified nowadays with the availability of Power and Energy Loggers (PEL’s). The best Power and Energy Loggers are extremely simple to use and can be installed in distribution panels or around the facility without difficulty, and removed as easily without the need to shut down the installation or office building first. They are capable of storing tens of thousands to several million readings, and the results can be retrieved later or transmitted locally or remotely via Bluetooth, WiFi, or LAN. PEL’s can also show any phase imbalances on 3-phase systems along with any power factor issues that would cause unnecessary high billing. Additionally, they can identify harmonics that could cause operational issues in a facility, and result in power loss and heating in power supply equipment, such as supply transformers. Add a thermal imaging camera, showing losses within the buildings and associated HVAC systems, and most energy inefficiency issues within the facility can be simply identified and corrective action taken. A thermal camera will also show overheating equipment, which apart from risk of failure or maybe even fire, must be consuming excessive energy by virtue of the fact that it is generating excess heat. Today it is possible to source a complete energy efficiency kit, containing simple to use PEL’s and thermal imaging cameras, with associated reporting software, that allow any facility manager or maintenance electrician to perform energy surveys on their infrastructure and make significant savings. In a world where Energy isn’t getting any cheaper, there has never been a better time to put in place measures to reduce consumption and save money, whether you’re looking for a solution to improve the energy efficiency of your business, or looking to get into the business of measuring and improving energy efficiency for other organisations. Julian Grant – General Manager, Chauvin-Arnoux UK Limited
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Energy Manager Magazine • April 2017