2. America’s Declaration of Energy Independence starts with greater efficiency. All surveys agree: the average big building in America wastes 10% to 30% of the energy it consumes. The problem with energy is… it’s not really about energy. It’s about a major expense that is ineffectively tracked and reported & therefore consumed like tap water and granted an unlimited budget every year.
3. “This isn’t about technology. This is about changing a culture that developed during all the years when energy was cheap and abundant. It is no longer either.”–Department of Defense Director of Facilities Energy,9/1/2010 Organizations maintain financial controls over expenses like petty cash and office supplies. Public schools can consume $500,000 of electricity per year and office buildings $2,500,000 with no financial controls. Isn’t that enough to budget, track and control? If so, why are the lights still on?
4. Traditional methods to improve energy efficiency rely heavily on new equipment and projects. Customer are urged to ‘jump to solutions’, leaping from passive to the latest panacea. Projects provide only short term benefit and they place the responsibility for improving energy efficiency on other people. So, who is responsible for improving the energy efficiency of big buildings? Everyone who consumes energy in big buildings.
5. Why not just add more layers of analysis to Building Automation Systems and call it a day? Well, here’s how it works in most installations: Are the kids doing their homework? I told them to do their homework. But are they actually doing their homework? I can show you a printout that lists, to the very second, the last 50 times I told them to do their homework. Why can’t you answer one simple question? I only do Commands. Supervision will cost you more. A lot more.
6. Building owners need a clean break from an industry that counts on them having no idea what’s really going on with their big buildings. Stockholders and taxpayers have a right to know: How efficiently have our buildings been operated in the past? How can we improve the efficiency of equipment & systems we already own and operate? Can we identify and implement best practices for the staff and occupants of all our buildings? How are these buildings performing right now? When something goes wrong, will we know it?
7. How will building owners get answers to their questions? Through cost analysis, not guarantees. Financial controls, not shared savings. Operational transparency, not more automation. Normalized results, not narrow calculations to establish vendor compensation. Standardized reporting, not greenwashed websites or feel-good special events. Bottom line: energy must be treated like every other expense line in the budget.
8. What does “The Biggest Loser” know that the Department of Energy does not? Crash diets don’t work for people or buildings. Those serious about losing weight and keeping it off change their lifestyle. They step on that scale, move more, eat less & check results often. Those serious about improving energy efficiency must change the lifestyle of their organizations. Benchmark, Plan, Execute & Publish results every single month. All improvement processes need validated results to become sustainable.
9. EnergyPlanIT: low-cost, flat-rate, hosted software services and powerful monitoring devices Automated regression analysis To ‘normalize’ results & track the ever changing energy efficiency of big buildings on a regular basis. Utility interval meter data analysis To illustrate the building’s actual energy consumption patterns and events over the past year. Continuous energy monitoring and automatic text alerts To track consumption trends and events with the new MITS device & identify energy problems as they occur. Energy is like security: bad things happen fast. So, how quickly do you want to be informed?
