Who doesn’t like a good audit? Well…nobody, but unfortunately for us, they’re necessary.
Especially when it comes to high-powered commercial buildings with near-endless population fluctuation – be it shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, or otherwise.
Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to doing any sort of business, and energy doesn’t come cheap. That goes both for electricity and your personal energy.
So, to make sure you don’t burn out and come out completely drained on the other side of your commercial building energy inspection, we’re giving you all the tips and tools you need.
Counting up the bills
Energy audits are commonly the first step to making your building more efficient. They help you identify energy-saving opportunities, increase asset values, promote environmental friendliness, human comfort, as well as health and safety standards. The audit typically consists of a few steps:
1) Utility Bill Analysis
- Summary of utility service feeds (electric and gas)
- Overview of areas and processes served by each utility service feed
- Spreadsheet analysis of the data
- Assessment of average load factors
- Summary of billing rate schedules
2) On-site Survey of the Property
- Collect nameplate data and efficiency performance of energy-using systems and equipment (lighting, heating/cooling, etc.)
- Calculate equipment performance and runtime
- Compare construction drawings with the current state of the building
3) Diagnostic Testing
- Insulation
- Centralized heating
- Ventilation systems
- etc.
Putting the data to use
Depending on the steps taken and the thoroughness of the process, energy inspections can be divided into three kinds:
- walk-through analysis
- energy survey and analysis
- detailed analysis of capital-intensive modifications
However, regardless of which steps you choose to take and how in-depth you go in your analysis, all this data will be useless to you without a proper action plan for improving efficiency.
Thankfully, there’s a standardized approach for achieving that goal. Common fixes you can make to improve the energetical state of your building include:
- Lighting retrofits and replacements
- Adding variable speed drives to fans and pumps
- Control changes, enhancements, and repairs
- Daylight controls
These fixes are popular due to being ROI-friendly within five years of their installation. Other solutions such as replacing chillers and boilers or rewiring the lighting systems are equally viable but take longer to achieve a return on investment.
The digital tool to power up your energy inspections
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After all, you need to start somewhere. Auditing your building will see you taking notes you wouldn’t be able to remember otherwise.
But the pen-and-paper approach is far from ideal. So why not let us help you save your energy and power up your energy audit with a digital tool?
Resco’s facility maintenance software allows you to create a holistic overview of your building’s state.
Free Facility Maintenance Checklist
Download a free Facility Inspection Checklist for Waste Management and make sure your place is safe and spotless thanks to a clever set of checkboxes.
It offers entirely customizable mobile forms, meaning you can add or remove aspects of the checklist as needed. Furthermore, the mobile inspection forms designer supports not only text but also photos and images.
Try out our Facility Inspection Checklist for 30 days for absolutely free, or visit our Digital Template Library for more digital solutions!