Month: January 2018

One of the biggest expenses all property owners incur is energy costs. With the rising cost of energy, as well as the need to be more energy efficient and reducing you carbon footprint, having a building energy audit completed can help determine areas that need improvement. A third-party can perform a building energy audit for your property or business, and it can be advantageous to have their insight. Their analysis can help reveal certain faults and offer solutions to fix them to improve efficiency.

Areas of Waste

An analysis and audit will identify areas where you are wasting energy. Most companies waste a significant amount of energy daily by simply not following best practices and protocols. The energy audit will determine areas in which you are wasting energy, calculate how much it is a cost to you, and develop a plan for addressing these concerns to reduce your squandered output.

Capital Repairs

While there are many operational changes that most businesses could complete to reduce their energy costs, another reason why energy cost can be so high is because they have equipment that is older and inefficient. The building energy audit will be able to identify capital equipment and major appliances that are using too much energy. They will also be able to develop a plan for maintenance schedules and potential equipment replacement to figure out a way to reduce your resource consumption.

An external building energy audit will be beneficial to detail facility costs and to implement a plan to optimize operations. If you are interested in finding ways to reduce your property’s energy output and costs, contact us to learn more about how a building energy audit could help you.

When it comes to reducing costs, facility improvements can make a massive difference in achieving yearly savings. However, every building is different and requires a customized solution. In every case, proper analysis can yield effective systems and strategies for creating the maximum savings for your organization.

Analysis of your building envelope, assets, maintenance logs and utility bills can identify the root cause of your facility’s time and energy waste. The proposed facility improvements should be prioritized so that the most effective changes are put into place first. After the appropriate changes are made, a maintenance plan should be created to ensure your facility continues to perform at optimal levels.

The actual changes to your facility will vary widely depending on your needs. In some cases, a centralized building automation system may be required. These systems allow for simultaneous monitoring of all your organization’s buildings to quickly identify failing equipment. The ability to quickly address failures in your equipment can create the opportunity to implement repairs immediately, rather than accumulate costs due to energy waste and further equipment breakdown.

In other cases, your facility may require core upgrades that include changes to your chiller plant or supporting infrastructure. These changes can make a radical difference in the energy wasted on cooling issues. Over the course of a year, this can create significant savings for your organization.

Facility improvements involve the integration of efficient, working systems and equipment that help reduce your building’s waste. Following a proper analysis, an appropriate list of changes can be developed and implemented. The payoff for an initial investment in these upgrades comes in the form of savings the accumulate year after year.

A great example of tailored facility improvements leading to massive savings, Kansas City’s Union Station implemented a prioritized facility plan, making small and large upgrades to their building envelope and facility assets and saw $203,000 of savings in their first year.

Watch how: https://bcsperformancesolutions.com/case-studies/union-station-kansas-city/

You can save money by using building intelligence to reduce maintenance costs and target special needs like winterization. Regular maintenance makes equipment last longer and reduces repair costs, and checking in, as winter has arrived, is imperative to ensure all equipment functions properly and optimally throughout the harsh season.

Targeting Operations and Equipment for Winterizing

You can save money and improve productivity by properly winterizing your operations. You’ll reduce chances of damage caused by freezing temperatures, equipment malfunctions, and enable employees to get more done, more efficiently.

Start by preparing your building. Ensure seals are tight on windows and doors. Inspect the building’s insulation. Fill in gaps and add thickness, covering spaces where necessary. You need a minimum of four inches of insulation in walls, ceilings, and attics. Cover air conditioning vents with custom-fitted wood or plastic seals. Prepare your equipment, especially the furnace and backup generators, with fresh oil and fluids. Check coolant levels on refrigeration equipment and cooling mechanisms that keep manufacturing equipment from overheating.

The outside of your building needs attention, too. Clean its roof drains, catch basins, and storm drains. Keep them clear all year round because in winter, precipitation, especially snow, can clog the system. A clogged system causes snow to accumulate on the roof. This extra weight can cause leaks, holes, and cave and.

Move your fleet inside. You’ll save yourself from having to dig out your vehicles, prevent damage from winter precipitation and winds, and preserve engine health by keeping each vehicle’s fluids from freezing and turning solid. Detach and properly store attachments not used in cold weather months to prevent joint and hinge damage. Check fluid levels and top off or replace each vehicle’s engine, hydraulic, final drive, and transmission fluids.

Store and recharge batteries indoors. Keeping them warm improves performance.

Inflate all tires and check them regularly to ensure they are properly inflated. Tires deflate more quickly in cold weather. Check each vehicle’s owner manual for specific recommendations. For instance, Caterpillar recommends inflating tires on its equipment with dry nitrogen gas (DNG). Using DNG helps eliminate ice crystals from forcing open the tire’s valve stem. Of course, an open valve stem causes deflation.

How Performance Solutions Can Help

We offer solutions of automated building intelligence for efficient upkeep your building and equipment. Our products enable you to make maintenance and replacement decisions based upon hard data from all your organization’s sources, including siloed metering systems. You’ll be able to defer (unnecessary) maintenance and upgrade truly necessary items as needed. We turn your company’s automated data from machinery, equipment, and building elements into actionable, analyzed data in a comprehensive form. We conduct a gap analysis and provide the expertise and technology to provide a complete, constantly up-to-date picture of your operations and equipment. You can cut costs and improve efficiency through automation. Contact us to learn how easy it is to save money, extend equipment life, and reduce building wear and tear.

Energy efficiency and increased performance is the name of the game in building improvements. There is currently a massive opportunity across the country to upgrade systems and save a significant amount of money. New technologies are allowing serious energy savings in buildings that lead to 10-15% cost reductions in monthly bills. Those savings flow straight to the bottom line, increasing the valuation of the property. One of the most important improvements your building can make is with automated systems.

Building automation systems work by first establishing a “smart” grid internally. This links the HVAC, electricity, water, security, entrances, and other building components on the same network. The network can be viewed through a dashboard, programmed for automation, and controlled manually.

Crucially, the system works to lower energy consumption automatically. When the building is not occupied or certain areas are empty, energy use in those spaces automatically decreases. There is less air conditioning in the summer and less heat in the winter. Using detectors, historical patterns, and smart algorithms, the system learns how to optimize energy consumption. This automatically leads to lower energy bills while still maintaining comfortable conditions.

Using an automation system leads to happier tenants and more affordable utility costs. The savings can then be reinvested in further automated performance systems to find building operation inefficiencies elsewhere. We provide analysis, consultation, and management of facility improvement projects, including automated systems. For more information, please contact us.