Probably you have heard about energy audit from your friends or media and it turn on your curiosity about energy audit. So what is energy audit?
The Definition of Energy Efficiency
Well, the simple definition of Energy Audit is to “Determine the energy consumption of a home and find ways to reduce it”. Energy audit is also known as energy efficiency, energy saving, energy evaluation, energy assessment, energy inspection and energy examination.
Energy Efficiency Principles
When the object of study is an occupied building then reducing energy consumption while maintaining or improving human comfort, health and safety are of primary concern. Beyond simply identifying the sources of energy use, an energy audit seeks to prioritize the energy uses according to the greatest to least cost effective opportunities for energy savings.
The Activity of Energy Efficiency
The activity of the energy audit cover inspecting the energy flows of a facility (it can be home, building, etc), list and calculate all energy consumption where it is used, then provide list of actions needed to reduce the consumption while improving human comfort, health and safety.
The person who performs energy audit called energy auditor. They can be just an ordinary people who have enough information to perform energy audit or a well trained and certified energy auditor by an Energy Audit Training / Institute.
The Objectives of Energy Efficiency
Here are some objectives when doing energy auditing:
- Identifying the quality and cost of various energy inputs
- Assessing present pattern of energy consumption in different cost centers of operations.
- Relating energy inputs and production output.
- Identifying potential areas of thermal and electrical energy economy.
- Highlighting wastage’s in major areas.
- Recommend appropriate energy conservation, operation, and maintenance procedures.
- Note current and potential health and safety problems and how they may be affected by proposed changes.
- Implementation of measures for energy conservation & realization of savings.
Level of Energy Efficiency Service
Three common service level of energy audit are preliminary audit, general audit, investment-grade audit. The actual tasks performed and level of effort may vary with the consultant providing services. See the detailed scope of work to ensure which level will meet your specific needs.
Preliminary Energy Audit
The preliminary energy audit is a simple energy audit that involves minimal interviews with site operating personnel, a brief review of facility utility bills and other operating data, and a walk-through of the facility to become familiar with the building operation and identify glaring areas of energy waste or inefficiency.
So, when to do preliminary energy audit? The answer is when you want to do:
- Energy audit for major problem areas only
- Quick estimation of implementation cost
- Quick estimation of potential operating cost savings
- Quick estimation of simple payback periods.
Preliminary Energy Audit level is not sufficient for reaching a final decision on implementing a proposed measures, but adequate to prioritize your energy efficiency projects and determine the need for a more detailed audit.
General Energy Audit
The general energy audit is a more complete site energy audit, extension of the preliminary energy audit described above by collecting more detailed information about facility operation and performing a more detailed evaluation of energy conservation measures identified. The general energy audit process requires:
- Utility bills are collected for a 12 to 36 month period to allow the auditor to evaluate the facility’s energy/demand rate structures, and energy usage profiles
- Additional metering of specific energy-consuming systems is often performed to supplement utility data
- In-depth interviews with facility operating personnel are conducted to provide a better understanding of major energy consuming systems as well as insight into variations in daily and annual energy consumption and demand.
General Energy Audit will be able to:
- Identify all energy conservation measures appropriate for the facility given its operating parameters.
- A detailed financial analysis is performed for each measure based on detailed implementation cost estimates, site-specific operating cost savings, and the customer’s investment criteria.
- Sufficient detail is provided to justify project implementation.
Investment-Grade Energy Audit
The investment-grade energy audit is a comprehensive audit, detailed audit, maxi audit, or technical analysis audit, expands on the general energy audit described above by providing a dynamic model of energy use characteristics of both the existing facility and all energy conservation measures identified.
The building model is calibrated against actual utility data to provide a realistic baseline against which to compute operating savings for proposed measures. Extensive attention is given to understanding not only the operating characteristics of all energy consuming systems, but also situations that cause load profile variations on both an annual and daily basis. Existing utility data is supplemented with sub metering of major energy consuming systems and monitoring of system operating characteristics.
When Investment-Grade Energy Audit is required?
In most corporate settings, upgrades to a facility’s energy infrastructure must compete with non-energy related investments for capital funding. Both energy and non-energy investments are rated on a single set of financial criteria that generally stress the expected return on investment (ROI). The projected operating savings from the implementation of energy projects must be developed such that they provide a high level of confidence. In fact, investors often demand guaranteed savings.