Five Steps to Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings
Decided whether you (or your company) want to develop, implement and fund the Energy Efficiency Project (EEP) yourself or hire an Energy Savings Company (ESCO) to do it for you. If using an ESCO, use a list of qualified ESCOs (from DOE, US Army Corp of Engineers or others) to begin your selection process.
If performing the EEP yourself, hire a qualified person to help you if you don’t have one on staff. A qualified person is: 1) an Energy Auditor (certified by AEE or ASHRAE); 2) an Energy Manager (certified by AEE) with energy auditing experience or 3) a professional Engineer or Architect with energy auditing experience. Next, use the following five steps as a guide:
1. Determine your building’s Energy Use Intensity (EUI). The EUI is an expression of net energy used per year divided by gross floor area.
2. Determine your building’s Energy Use Intensity Target (EUIT). The EUIT can be determined from ASHRAE 100-2015 based on the type, geographical location and operating hours of your building.
3. If your EUI is less than your EUIT, no action required and you should re-evaluate your EUI within five years. If your EUI is greater than EUIT you should: 1) perform an Energy Audit; 2) implement Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) recommended from the Energy Audit; and 3) re-evaluate your EUI one year after these ECMs have been implemented.
4. Establish a Building Energy Management Plan based on ASHRAE 100-2015 (Section 5.1) using Building Energy Monitoring and Net Energy Use Calculations per ASHRAE 100-2015 (Section 5.2).
5. Establish an Operations and Maintenance Program per ASHRAE 100-2015 (Section 6)