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METU is BACK!
Is your infrastructure in need of a tune-up?
METU offers energy efficiency project assistance from “cradle to grave” to all central valley local governments.
- Energy Benchmarking measures energy usage at each of your sites to identify opportunities for energy and money savings.
- Readiness Reports to outline the steps needed to get the project done and information to get projects approved.
- Advanced Project Assistance should your staff lack the time to manage the project to completion.
Connect with us today!
T: (877) 748-0841
Check out our new website!
www.municipaltuneup.org
Energy Audits of Small Government Buildings
A walk through audit is just that--walking through a building, looking for quick and easy ways to save energy. You're not looking to see if the occupancy sensor in a room needs to be relocated, but rather finding obvious energy-saving measures. And when performed after benchmarking your building(s), you can save time and money by only auditing buildings that have a really high energy foot print for the type of building it is. Here at SJVCEO we benchmark A LOT of small government buildings, so we have a pretty good sense of how much energy a City Hall of a certain size consumes here in the San Joaquin Valley. Or a fire station, or even a police station. And the more similar facilities we benchmark, the stronger our case is when we say “This building needs an audit. Here’s where it falls on the spectrum of similar facilities in the San Joaquin Valley.” Wouldn't you like to know if you should be keeping up with the Joneses? Or, what if you are the Joneses?
Take a look outside, too. Some building-attached lighting can be really inefficient, and even more so if they are on an indoor switch. Changing them to a photo sensor or time clock can save a lot of money without a lot of headache. Even more can be saved by switching to LED. The same goes for parking lot lights. Their long run hours make for a quick payback, even if the building is on a time-of-use rate.
The first part of performing a walk through audit is to
gather up all the information and equipment you may need before you walk in. That includes:
- An energy consumption chart of the past 12 month of energy consumption. It may help you identify and/or confirms problems in the building.
- Satellite imagery. How large is the building? Does it have an attached parking lot? How many rooftop units might you encounter? Google Streetview can help you here too.
- The building's floor plan. If you're marking potential energy-saving measures, you'll want to note where they are. Also, so you don't get lost!
- A camera phone. An iPhone takes really pictures, has a built-in flash, and is thin enough to fit around tight corners. And sometimes, the zoom is pretty decent too.
- A light meter. How much light hits the surfaces that are to be illuminated? Is it enough, too much or not enough? Ensuring there's the right amount of light hitting surfaces can reduce your energy consumption and/or increase office productivity.
- A fluorescent ballast checker. A T-8 lamp may look energy efficient, but it could be running on a magnetic ballast, known to consume more energy than necessary. Using one of these lets you find out if they are without opening up the fixture.
- A clipboard and paper. You may not have a surface available to write on, and you'll definitely be taking notes along the way.
- Typical energy consumption breakdown for the building's use. You can go to the California End Use Survey (CEUS) website, which will show you on average how much each end use (lighting, cooling, heating) consumes for a type of building. The charts it produces help you focus your efforts by identifying where the largest amount of energy goes.
Lighting, office equipment, and air conditioning
are the largest consumers of energy
in San Joaquin Valley small offices. Source: CEUS
Once you're in the building, you'll want to talk to individuals how may know the most about how the building operates. When does the lights come on? Who turns off and on the thermostat? Speaking of thermostats...
Be sure to record the schedule and temperature settings of the thermostats. Workers don't like to be uncomfortable, so the settings they plug into it might indicate a lot. If they have the cooling temperature set really low, that might indicate a failing compressor or vents located in the wrong places. You may not be able to point out a fix, but the building operators should definitely know to consider looking more into it.
Also, the schedule might be off! Maybe it comes on 2 hours before work starts, or stays on longer than it needs to. A lot of City Halls also hold City Council meetings at night, but typically not weekends, and especially not every night. Those changes are quick and painless, and result in instant and often impressive savings.
Look in the cubicles. Are there smart power strips? Often overlooked, but employees aren’t at their desk all the time. If there’s nothing to turn off auxiliary devices when their space is vacant, there’s some additional savings. While you're there, ask if the computers go to sleep or into hibernation automatically. If they don't, there's even more savings there too!
Look for occupancy sensors in areas that aren't occupied often, like bathrooms and conference rooms, and especially Council chambers. Lights in those areas are often left on longer than they need to be, and can be easily retrofitted for quick savings.
Take a look outside, too. Some building-attached lighting can be really inefficient, and even more so if they are on an indoor switch. Changing them to a photo sensor or time clock can save a lot of money without a lot of headache. Even more can be saved by switching to LED. The same goes for parking lot lights. Their long run hours make for a quick payback, even if the building is on a time-of-use rate.
Once you're finished tallying up all the measures, you'll want to calculate how much each will save. Some will be easier (like lighting) than others. Energy rates can be found on their respective utility company's website, or you can use a general Annual Consumption divided by Annual Cost for an average Cost per kWh. Don't bother getting too bogged down in calculating exactly how much each measure will save, as this is just a walk through audit. Prices for materials are easy to find, but labor can be a different story. Find the prevailing wage rate for the type of work (for electrical, its typically Inside Wireman) and make an assumption for how much time the work might take, or ask your City Engineer for an estimate. Take that cost, and divide it by annual cost savings, and you have yourself the Simple Payback. You can even take the inverse of that number (1/X) and get the Return on Investment percentage too. Do this for every measure, total it up, and do it again. Some measures might have a long payback, but combined with faster payback measures, you can get a lot of savings very quickly!
Lighting the Way to Savings
We have all gotten used to having
lights to guide us down the road or down the sidewalk, but do you know how much
electricity it takes to light that path? Many American’s have no idea what it
takes to keep common area lighting going, but your cities and counties do. If
you were to ask them how much it costs they would most likely state…TOO MUCH!
Cities have held back on making the leap
to LED streetlights, since it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. Many city
councils and or county supervisors get hung up on the price tag and vote no,
but there are many more added benefits to making the change than one would
think. When streetlights are upgraded to LED streetlights cities will gain more
than energy savings and energy usage. They will be improving light pollution,
wasted lighting and public safety. Many may doubt that the items listed above
can be improved with just lights, but I am here to prove it to you!
Most of the older streetlights
that you see today were installed in the 1970’s and give off an orange hue. The
hue is caused by the lights containing sodium, which takes a lot of energy to
keep lit. Estimates show that for outdoor
parking and roadway lighting the US spends around $10 Billion dollars’ each
year. That same amount that goes to those outdoor lighting structures would be
able to power around 6 million homes. [i] Besides the conservation of energy look at the dollars and cents that would be
saved. That is a large chunk of money that a city or county could put toward a
large improvement project.
When a city decides to make the
switch to LED streetlights they would be able to use 60% less electricity. One
such success story was featured in SF Bay. The City of San Jose is retrofitting
63,000 of their streetlights by the year 2016. [ii]
It is one of the biggest lighting retrofits in the country. The city is doing a
two part retrofit with the first part consisting of 18,100 lights and comes at
a cost of $10.5 million. The city is working with PG&E on their
streetlights program, which will provide around $900,000 in rebates once all is
said and done. With the incentive taken into consideration the city will cut
the big price tag down to $9.6 million. Not too shabby of a savings in my book.
Besides the money and
energy savings cities can improve light pollution and wasted light as well. Having
LED streetlights allows the lighting to be directed to where you would like the
lighting to go to.[iii] Along
with having directional light LED’s are able to deliver a more even light to
the area being lit. With more even light you do not get the glowing sensation
like you would with the older orange lights.
Now when it comes to improving
public safety street lights help to improve pedestrian safety and traffic
safety. With well thought out plans of street lights pedestrian can become more
visible along the sidewalks as well as in the crosswalks or roadways. When it
comes to traffic safety improved lighting would be a no brainer. With well-lit
roadways and intersections you have improved visibility of vehicles. Most of
your high lit areas would be those that have high traffic, high volume and
dangerous or blind curves.
Though city officials would
receive praise for making such large investments and upgrades they can also
receive national recognition. Just this year President Obama launched the Presidential
Challenge for Advanced Outdoor Lighting. This challenge is to help push
municipalities to make the upgrade to better outdoor lighting. For those cities
and local governments that would like to gain that recognition and complete the
work they will be listed on the white house partners listing as well as gain press
attention.
[i]
“LED Outdoor Lighting: A $6 Billion Annual Savings Opportunity”, Mar. 18, 2015,
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2015/03/led-outdoor-lighting-a-6-billion-annual-savings-opportunity
[ii]
“San Jose Flips Switch on LED Streetlights”, Mar., 18, 2015, http://sfbay.ca/2015/02/11/san-jose-flips-switch-on-led-streetlights/
[iii] “Improving
Efficiency in Municipal Street and Public Space Lighting”, Mar., 26, 2015, http://www.efficiencyvermont.com/Docs/for_my_business/lighting_programs/StreetLightingGuide.pdf
Gov. Brown seeks to continue energy efficiency programs
Marc Lifsher of the Times writes that a draft of the bill — dubbed the Clean Energy, Jobs and Investment Act of 2011 — "was presented at a private meeting late last week in the governor's office with utility executives, legislative staffers, environmentalists and power plant developers."
Lifsher quotes Brown staffer Nancy McFadden as saying that the measure is a "priority for Gov. Brown because of its proven job-creation potential and role in galvanizing California's innovative clean-tech economy."
The energy efficiency program is paid for by a "public goods surcharge" of $1 to $2 on a residential ratepayer's utility bills. In 1996, AB 1890 directed the state’s three major investor-owned utilities -- Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric -- to collect the funds.
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved energy efficiency funding of $3.1 billion for 2010 through 2012 through the program, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Lifsher says the program collects about $400 million a year.
Lifsher says the program is opposed by business groups such as the California Manufacturers & Technology Association and antitax groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Public goods funds pay for a series of energy efficiency programs, including:
- The Savings by Design program, which is offered by PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, Southern California Gas and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. This program provides incentives for energy efficiency measures in new construction and major renovations.
- The Statewide Customized Offering for Business, which is offered by PG&E, SCE and SDG&E. The utilities provide incentives for efficient lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration and natural gas equipment as well as for controls, building shell retrofits and demand reduction measures.
- PG&E, SCE and SDG&E offer rebates for more efficient lighting, HVAC, water heaters, refrigeration, motors and other equipment.
Public goods funds also pay for local government partnerships that seek to aid jurisdictions in implementing energy savings measures in their communities to reduce energy use, greenhouse gas and utility costs.
For instance, SCE says it provides support to more than 100 cities and counties through its Energy Leader Partnership Program. The utility says partnership program helps local governments "identify and address energy efficiency opportunities in municipal facilities, take actions supporting the California Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan and increase community awareness and participation."
One of those partnerships is Valley Innovative Energy Watch, which includes Tulare County, Kings County, Visalia, Hanford, Woodlake, Lindsay, Tulare and Porterville. The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization serves as implementer for the partnership.
Other California partnerships include the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, the San Gabriel Valley partnership, the Chula Vista partnership and many others.