Energy Efficiency
Energy Audit
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Table of Contents
Overview
Why is an Energy Audit Important?
Who Needs an Energy Audit?
Synonyms &
Related Terms
Typical Uses
Typical Results Achieved
Typical Symptoms
Typical Problems Encountered
Things to Consider
What's the PQA Advantage?
The Next Step
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"If you cannot measure it, you
cannot improve it." Lord Kelvin (1824 - 1907)
An Energy Audit solves the measurement problem.
Auditing for energy purchases, use, conversion, and
waste is the first step in managing your energy consumption. For
maximum effectiveness, it is essential to focus on the essentials.
This is best done through the Pareto Principle (80% of the
effect is caused by 20% of the factors).
During an Energy Audit, PQA takes a broad,
comprehensive approach, then progressively zooms in on the specific
issues and opportunities that deserve further investigation. The
Energy Audit report can be used as the starting point for Feasibility
Studies, Energy Management Plans, Retrofitting Existing Systems, and
Design of new Energy Efficient Processes.
With each Energy Audit, you get a detailed report on
your current situation, and PQA's professional recommendations for more
detailed study.
Typical costs for an Energy Audit range from $500
(small, partial audits) to $20,000 for comprehensive studies on large
buildings or industrial processes. Typical audits are $3,000 to
5,000 for 80% of the initial Energy Audits done.
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Energy supplies and its consumption are the fundamental tools for our
life and standard of living. Canada is the
most inefficient nation
in the industrialized world. PQA predicts that
Energy will become
the primary economic driving force in the 2010 decade. Everyone must
do their part to ensure long term, sustainable benefits for mankind.
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- Process Owners
- Building Owners
Process Owners are concerned about energy use and conversion for
their processes. A process has inputs, outputs, and uses conversions
& transformations to turn inputs to outputs. Examples are:
- Steel manufacturing process which takes iron ore as an input, and
make steel ingots as an output
- Restaurants who take raw foods and hungry customers as inputs, and
produce satisfied customers as outputs
- Hospitals who take medical supplies, medical technology, and ill
patients as inputs, and create well patients aas the output.
- Power converters who take natural gas as an input and convert it
into electricity as an output.
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- Energy Efficiency
- Green House Gasses (GHG)
- Global Warming
- Climate Change
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Electricity
- Fuel
- Energy Supply
- Consumption
- Sustainable Development
- Green Energy
- Alternative Fuels
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PQA generally does three types of Energy Audits. Each one goes
into greater depth, is more specific to your particular circumstances, and
is therefore more expensive. The three types are:
- Historical Data Analysis Preliminary audits that
gather and analyse data on your facility's average energy consumption.
This frequently includes statistical analysis of your energy purchases,
calculation of your energy efficiency indices, and benchmarking against
similar operations.
- Walk-through audits involve a review of your facility's
energy use profiles, overall assessments of energy-consuming systems and
equipment, collection of on-site data on building conditions, process
equipment, and conditions (temperatures, pressures, flows, leaks,
horsepowers, etc.).
- Technical or Engineering audits and
feasibility studies are the most
complex energy use studies. These can provide detailed analyses of your
facility's energy use profiles, as well as full descriptions of building
systems, operations, levels of performance and potential for savings.
They explain not only what energy is being used, by why it's so high,
and what changes could be achieved to reduce the energy consumption.
These studies can include detailed heat loss calculations, computer
simulations, and other technical analysis. Technologies that can
be assessed are wind, solar PV (photo-voltaic), hot water heating, solar
heating (passive & active), CHP (Combined Heat Power), CHCP (Combined
Heat Cool Power), refrigeration (mechanical & absorption), heat pumps,
HVAC, high efficiency electric motors, biomass, and small
hydro-electric.
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An Energy Audit can be used to analyze one or more of the following:
- historic energy supplies and uses (oil, coal, wood, natural gas,
electricity, wind, solar, etc.)
- historic energy consumption (BTU/hr, kW-hrs/month, etc.)
- Energy trends & projections (cost, sources, availability, etc.)
- Available technologies (domestic water heaters, space heaters,
glazing, insulation, vapour barriers, etc.)
- Energy efficiency & waste (heat losses, conversion efficiency, waste
by-products, risks, costs, etc.)
- Environmental impact (Greenhouse gasses, global warming, sustainable
development, etc.)
- Cost Reduction (energy supply contracts, retrofits, best technology,
ROI%, payback, etc.)
- Legislation & regulations (approvals, certificates, recommended
practices, etc.)
- Identifying air leakage through the building envelope (usually 25% -
40% of space heating costs are caused by air leakage)
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An Energy Audit report that:
- Defines the data collected
- Provides analysis of the raw data
- Gives interpretation of the data for significance to the
organization that commissioned the report (eg. Why is this important?)
- Presents Conclusions based on excellent technical analysis of the
situation
- Propose solutions as to available options, pros & cons, risks,
costs, sequence, and optimum plan for the future
- Offer Recommendations on the best course of action
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You know you need an Energy Audit if:
- Your security &/or reliability of future energy supplies is in doubt
(electricity outages, natural gas supplies, etc.)
- Your energy costs are increasing
- Peak load, demand charges, & variation in consumption are creating
premium costs & charge rates
- The "degree of Green" and Sustainability has become an issue to your
Customers &/or Stakeholders
- Government regulations on emissions are hindering your business, or
limiting your growth
- You are unable to continue using the same past methods & processes
(ie. obsolete technology, etc.)
- You need a faster rate of improvement &/or cost reduction
- Stakeholders complain about cold drafts, indoor temperature/humidity
swings
- Indoor condensation on walls, windows, etc.
- You are implementing or registered to ISO 14001 International
Standard for Environmental Management
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- Audit &/or Auditor has a fore-gone conclusion/outcome to sell a
particular product or service, whether it's needed or not
- Audit lacks historical basis to see trends into the future
- Audit is narrow focused on a few, easy issues (not comprehensive)
- Audit has numerous assumptions &/or lacks scientific foundation
- Auditor lacks the credentials and experience in the client's
specific industry
- Insufficient, inaccurate, un-calibrated, or poorly placed measuring
devices
- Undetected mistakes are made in the data collection or analysis
- Audit is not focussed on the organization's specific needs (ie. one
size fits all)
- Audit concentrates on traditional solutions and technologies,
ignoring recent improvements
- Poor value for the money & effort expended
- Audit doesn't consider transitory peak consumption rates & premium
charge rates
- Energy reliability, outages, and poor quality of supply are not
considered
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- Why do you want to do an Energy Audit?
- How does Energy & energy efficiency rank on your organization's
overall Priority list today? 20 years from today?
- Why is Energy & energy efficiency a significant competitive factor
for your business?
- Why do you want to do an Energy Audit now?
- What are competitors & industry leaders doing about energy
efficiency & supply?
- How do your customers and Stakeholders feel about Green Energy,
energy efficiency, Green House Gasses, and sustainable development?
- What specific actions will you take once you receive your Energy
Audit report?
- Would you still do an Energy Audit, even if government subsidies
were not available?
- How will you find the best person to do your Energy Audit?
- What is your budget for doing an Energy Audit (minimum $, maximum $,
ideal $)?
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PQA has 17 years experience at implementing Energy Audit systems in various
industries. PQA personnel have been involved in energy, energy
conservation, & efficiency for more that 25 years, in a wide variety of
different industries. We have developed proprietary Energy Audit systems that ensure
Energy Audit data is accurate, timely, believable, and useful for management to
make the best decisions.
Energy Audit systems implemented by PQA typically include one or more of the
following features:
- Energy Audit is custom designed to each organization's specific
needs. One-size Energy Audit doesn't fit
all
- Statistical analysis of historical energy consumption rates & energy
efficiency indices
- Energy Audit is designed to be a tool for improving each of the
organization's internal and external processes (linked to your 21
Success Factors)
- Energy Audit data is linked to the 9 Competitive Factors (the 9 reasons why
customers buy from you instead of your competitors)
- Web-based Energy Audit data entry software system is open 24/7/365 for
collecting Energy Audit data from all source (all personnel, suppliers,
customers, and other stakeholders), where and when it occurs.
- Customer & supplier satisfaction & loyalty survey is linked to
Energy Audit
data for generating objective Energy Audit data for the "soft
Energy Audit costs"
- Project analysis templates for analysis of implementation cost,
savings, cash flow, and ROI (Return on Investment).
- Energy Audit assessment, consulting, coaching, feasibility studies,
detailed design, project management, and implementation assistance
to ensure effective implementation at all stages of your energy
efficiency improvement project.
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Q: Thank you for the
efforts you had put in to give out abundant information on energy systems
and energy situation around the world. I am a postgraduate student
conducting research on "Assessment of energy utilization efficiency" in
some industries in my country. My challenge here is that energy
conservation and management is still very new in my country and
information about energy engineering is scanty..... Therefore I will
appreciate if you can send me some materials on industrial energy auditing
including methodologies and the like.... and other relevant materials....
Thanks for your cooperation. Richardson Sunday, TPDU, Faculty of
Technology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria...
A: Thanks for your email. Your
country is one of the energy rich countries of the world, a gift of
geography and geology. Do many in your country see yourselves as
stewards, caretakers, trustees of this energy wealth for future
generations, your children and grandchildren? This is becoming a more
popular notion in my country. We are learning from our aboriginal
peoples, the American Indians, and their philosophies.
Over the last 30 years, I have learned that reduce is first and
foremost. Do not use what you can avoid.
Next is effectiveness, make the best use of what you must use. Do you
achieve your goal through this resource? Is it a worthwhile goal? Is
this resource the best for getting you to your goal? Choose a process
that will have maximum effectiveness of reaching your worthy goal.
Next is efficiency. Different than effectiveness, it is the yields,
conversion, indexes, and ratios. If your process was chosen so as to
have maximum effectiveness, then make that chosen process as efficient
as possible. In a land of plenty, it is extremely difficult to have the
discipline of conservation. Nevertheless, pick the important
measurements and factors that have a Pareto shape, then monitor them
closely. Use SPC (Statistical Process Control) techniques to maximize
learning and the rate of continuous improvement.
Next is re-use. Convert, transfer, exchange, store, and other means
to get the most out of your limited resources.
Next is recycle. Send everything around the process (or add on the
necessary sub-processes) one more time in an effective and efficient
manner. Sell or trade your wastes to others who can make effective use
of them.
Finally, the most important of all, are the people. Help the people
get involved by them becoming intrigued by all the above, learning about
it, deciding on it, building it, implementing it, and using all of the
above systems to achieve the agreed-upon goals. Help them change their
ways and build new habits that support all of the above. Motivate them
by the 5:1 Rule (5 positive feedbacks that you truly believe for every 1
negative point that needs further work & improvement). Recognize and
reward their actions taken in the right direction (successful or not),
and eventually you will be recognizing and rewarding their successful
achievements.
Click on the graphic. It may help explain the priorities in a
visual manner.
Glenn Black P.Eng. CQE CQA President Process Quality Associates Inc.
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If you or your organization want higher profitability, or significantly
improve your stakeholder satisfaction, a properly designed and implemented
Energy Audit system may be of interest.
E-mail,
or phone PQA (1-800-837-7046) for a free, confidential discussion of your
current situation, and how an Energy Audit may help.
PQA's typical recommendation is to do a rapid assessment of your
organization. We usually recommend statistical analysis of your
historical energy consumption & energy efficiency indices. We often
include all business processes, and interviews
with key personnel. PQA then provides a report on our findings and
recommendations on options available, and recommended course of action.
If you request, you can be provided an approximate cost to implement, as
well as the currently estimated losses from the current system. An ROI can then be calculated for the
proposed process upgrade
or implementation project.
If you decide to proceed, PQA can provide any necessary skills,
training, or implementation assistance to ensure an effective system.
PQA also offers quarterly or annual assessments to ensure your systems are working at peak effectiveness, or offer recommendations
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