Energy consumption as it pertains to global resources, climate change, and geo-political relationships is now a hot topic in the realms of world leaders. But energy consumption and those associated costs have long been of keen interest to facility owners and managers, and energy managers across the spectrum of business markets. Energy costs vary greatly by industry type, business type, and facility type, just to name a few, but one constant is that energy costs significantly affect all balance sheets.

Buildings must be climate controlled, and sustaining a safe and comfortable environment requires the consumption of energy by an HVAC system. Of course system types and applications differ broadly, as does the cost component the HVAC system comprises of any building’s total energy costs. They may account for 20% of the total or they may account for 80% of the total, the fact is that HVAC costs are always substantial. Given the inherent complexities of many system types, the possibility of less than ideal system performance is all but guaranteed. Inefficiency wastes energy, costs money and causes collateral damage; compromised reliability and redundancy, less productive employees, and reduced equipment life expectancy among them to name but a few.

Identifying existing inefficiencies and wasteful practices and correcting them will have a positive impact on your energy costs, and the expense to do so is usually minimal from a near-term fiscal perspective. Of course achieving ideal HVAC system performance, which we define to be as efficient as possible with no sacrifice in comfort, can be more costly but typically has very attractive returns on investment ratios. The following pages detail our experiences with reducing energy consumption and the approaches we use to achieve HVAC system efficiency.

1. Identify system inefficiencies, all HVAC systems suffer from varying degrees of inefficiency
2. Correct pre-existing design, installation and energy management deficiencies
3. Verify proper operations
4. Optimize your system’s performance

Prime candidates for our HVAC Systems Optimization and Energy Conservation services would include:

• Constant flow (air and/or water) systems
• Low chilled water temperature differentials (DT) systems (operating at less than design, should be higher than design at system part load)) especially including existing primary - variable secondary flow systems
• Systems using return air fans, parallel or series fan-powered VAV boxes
• Any HVAC system with energy management (controls) capabilities
• Systems with apparently little or zero redundancy
• Systems with constant temperature and humidity deviations from setpoint
• Systems with inadequate or excessive outside air quantities, perhaps resulting in space pressure control issues
• Any system with excessive utility costs. What is excessive? If you are on this website your bills are probably excessive