This article is a continuation of my series on best green operation and maintenance practices.  In this article and next, I am going to cover best energy efficiency practices:

Start by Defining Energy Savings Goals – Clearly defining energy goals will help you achieve the most from energy and efficiency measures.  The more clearly defined and specific the goal, the more likely it is that it will be achieved.  For example, “Reduce energy consumption for heating, cooling, and hot water by 10% through implementation of best operation and maintenance practices and conservation measures”. 

Track Performance –After setting your energy savings goals, you should track utility usage to evaluate the success of energy efficiency improvements and monitor progress towards the goals.  The  EPA offers a free benchmarking tool, Portfolio Manager, to help track utility usage within a property or between properties:  www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_portfoliomanager.   Besides tracking performance, you can use the data to encourage properties to compete with for the largest energy savings.

Change Air Filters – Inspect, clean, or change air filters every month.   A dirty filter wastes energy by slowing air flow and making the system work harder.  Keeping filters clean can help avoid expensive maintenance costs and early system failure by preventing dust and dirt from building up in the system.  You should be familiar with the location, sizes, and types of air filter required for your system.  Air filter maintenance should be part of the operating budget and the preventative maintenance program.

Programmable Thermostats –Installing a programmable thermostat is one of the easiest ways to save energy and efficiently building manage cooling and heating.  It is estimate that each degree cooler or warmer that a thermostat is set can increase energy usage from 6% to 8%.  Programmable thermostats can be adjusted to regulate temperatures during daytime hours, nights and weekends.   Select thermostats with thermostat locking and setpoint range control.  Thermostat locking prevents non-authorized individuals from adjusting temperatures and setpoint range control allows you to set a maximum and minimum temperature range for heating and cooling.  

Use Equipment Automatic Controls – Even if a piece of equipment or a system is well maintained, it can waste energy if operated using inadequate control strategies or improper scheduling.  Review and adjust any on-off controls such as programmable and mechanical time clock settings, setpoints, lighting photocells, and sweeps and occupancy sensors

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) practices are at the heart of sustaining green improvements.  O&M practices drive the long-term efficiency of green building systems.   In the next series of articles, I am going to cover best green practices to include in a green O&M plan.  In this article, I am going to discuss how to get the most from your O&M plan and how to do green capital planning. 

Plans litter the shelves of offices across the country, so it’s important to make sure your O&M plan is implemented and followed.  Here are some tips:

•  Identify Green Goals – Identify your goals to reduce consumption and improve efficiency, for example, energy savings goals, water reduction goals, etc.  Communicate these goals to your team and tenants.
• Make an Organizational Commitment – Going green and staying green involves everyone. 
• Designate Green Champion – Designate a team member or green committee to lead the green charge.
•  Educate – Increase participation and buy-in from tenants and staff members through green education and training. 
• Impact Values – Motivate lasting green practices through programs that recognize and reward green values. 
• Integrate Green Values and Expectations – Integrate green practices and expectations across organization policies, job descriptions, service contracts, etc.
• Ongoing Communication – Start a green column in the building’s newsletter. 
• Signage – Reinforce green behaviors with signage and placards. 
• Awareness – Include green awareness and training in orientation programs for new tenants, staff members, and contractors.

How to do Green Capital Planning – Conventional capital planning anticipates equipment replacement based on observed condition and expected useful life.  However, considerations of the annual costs of operating equipment are equally important.  It may be more cost effective to replace inefficient equipment sooner than expected.  To optimize financial return, energy savings from equipment upgrades should be factored into capital plans.  A simple payback analysis can be used to determine the cost-effectives of replacing less energy efficient equipment with higher energy efficient equipment:

Simple Payback – Calculating the simple payback, or number of years to recoup an investment, is one way to determine the cost effectiveness of a proposed equipment upgrade:

 Cost of Energy Efficient Equipment / Annual Energy Savings = Simple Payback 

Equipment upgrades with paybacks greater than 10 years are generally not considered cost effective.   Note that this calculation does not consider discount rates, inflation, replacement costs, or maintenance costs.  Use a life-cycle cost analysis to account for these factors.

 The U.S. Department of Energy provides cost calculators for several types of building equipment, appliances, and lighting technology to estimate a product’s lifetime energy cost savings at various efficiency levels: 

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/calculators/buildings.html

Check back in a week for my discussion on best energy efficiency practices.