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5 Energy Efficient Ways to Beat the Summer Heat

July 10, 2018

When the temperature outside soars, it’s hard to keep things cool inside without busting your utility budget. Running the air conditioner full blast may seem like a really good idea until you see the next electric bill.So, what can you do to beat the summer heat and not kill your budget?

Here are 5 energy efficient and utility budget friendly ideas.

1. Get a Programmable Thermostat or a Smart Thermostat

Many people think that its cheaper and more energy efficient to leave your air conditioner running on high all the time, even if you aren’t home. But it’s not true.

The amount of energy an air conditioning unit uses to cool down a space that’s been hot all day is actually less than the amount of energy needed to keep that space cool all day long. That means that you can save money if let your home get warm while you are gone for the day.

But you also don’t want it get too warm in your home. Letting the temperature rise above 80°F-85°F can cause damage to candles and other things sensitive to temperature.

This is where a programmable thermostat or smart thermostat can really help. Many people use them to cool down their house right before they come home, which maximizes their efficiency.

The beauty of these thermostats is that once you it’s set up, you don’t have to think about it again until the seasons change. No more lying in bed at night and thinking “did I turn the thermostat down?” Its already taken care of.

If you’re interested in more info on programmable thermostats check out these links:

If you want to know more about smart thermostats, try these links:

2. Use Fans Along with Your Air Conditioner

It may seem counter intuitive that using electricity for a fan while your air conditioner is running would save you money. But its true.

Fans move the air around and can move cool air from one area into another area. Fans also create a breeze, which feels good on the skin and help remove body heat.

Many homes have areas that seem to stay cool, even during the heat of the day. Using a fan to help move this cool air, helps your air conditioner maintain a comfortable temperature.

You may even find that you can turn your air conditioner up a few degrees and still be comfortable.

If you want more information on how to use fans to keep your home cool, check out these links:

3. Grill and Keep the Heat Outside

Most cooks know that using an oven will heat up the kitchen. While this can be nice in the winter, it can be brutal in the summer. So why not keep the heat out of the kitchen and use the grill on your patio. Not only is it fun, it will save you money on your utility bill.

4. Keep the Shades Drawn and the Curtains Closed

Its pleasant to see a nice bright sunny room. It makes the room appear warm and inviting.

Unfortunately, all that sunshine is also bringing a lot of heat into the room. In the winter, this is great, but in the summer, it can be very uncomfortable. It also puts an extra load on your air conditioner as it tries to keep your house cool.

Just closing the curtains or lowering the shades during the hottest part of the day can make a room feel much cooler. It will also help you save on your utility bill because it helps give your air conditioner a break.

5. Turn off Electronic Devices

Have you ever noticed how hot your computer gets? What about your TV or your gaming console or your stereo?

Electronics give off heat. That’s why so many of them have vents on the side or little fans in them. It may not seem like a lot, but it all adds up.

The more electronics you have, the more extra heat you have in your living space. Turning off these devices when you aren’t using them will help keep your space cool.

Finding Dollars Within Your Existing School Budget

October 26, 2017

When looking for ways for your school district to operate more efficiently, the “rock” to turn over with the greatest amount of savings is most likely energy management. All around us, embedded in every building is a vast, untapped energy resource: efficiency. Many times, this resource is hidden, ignored, or misunderstood by school districts that are sitting on the potential.

Today, school districts in the United States spend about $8 billion annually on energy costs alone, which is more than the cost of textbooks and computers combined.

Every year, K-12 facilities waste millions of dollars in excess energy consumption. Those dollars may take the form of lost heat through walls, windows, doors, and roofs. Every dollar used to pay an unnecessary high energy bill could be put to a much greater purpose – educating students.

By being intentional about cutting utility costs, school districts can easily reap savings that can be used to help fund greater needs within the district. Excess funds that districts are sending to the local utility companies can either be invested back into the facilities to address deferred maintenance issues, or possibly a new source of funding for other pressing instructional needs.

Excess funds could also be reinvested back into a district’s current facilities to work towards a zero net-energy environment. With zero net energy the total energy used by the building is equal to the renewable energy created on the site.

Some of the Top energy wasters include:

Inefficient Energy Managements Systems – a poorly configured energy management system can waste 20% – 25% of your gas and electricity dollars.

Lack of Central Plant Optimization – The typical workhorses of your heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system are boilers, chillers, pumps, and cooling towers. If these systems are not properly optimized they can be very costly to operate.

Postponed Preventive Maintenance – Even the most routine maintenance, like changing filters, can greatly enhance the energy efficiency of a building system.

Inefficient Lighting Systems – Lighting systems have made tremendous advances in technology and efficiency in recent years. Systems with built-in occupancy control, daylight sensors, and automatic dimming are cost-efficient ways to reduce electricity consumption and demand.

Wasteful Boiler Systems – Boilers are sized to meet the greatest potential demand on the system. Unfortunately, this means that for 90% of the year they are oversized.

Outdated Plumbing Fixtures – K-12 facilities are large consumers of water. Installing water conserving plumbing fixtures can result in significant savings.

Start saving money now:

The money to make the appropriate modifications is already available in your current budget, if you are willing to find it. One of the tools to help you find it is an energy audit. Conducting an energy audit of your school facilities will help you will find inefficient systems, infrastructure, and equipment that is costly to operate. By gaining a deep understanding of how these systems work, how people interact with them, and keeping the focus on improving performance great savings can be achieved.

Providing proper equipment training to your maintenance staff will often pay for itself. When maintenance staff know how and when to provide maintenance and modifications building equipment and the energy management system, it results in energy savings.

Many times, the cost to upgrade HVAC systems, lighting, windows and roofs, can be paid for over time with the saving generated in your monthly utility bills.

Don’t just pay the utility bills – track them. Ensure that you have developed an energy baseline before you start your projects so you can track your savings. Also, when you track utility bills, be sure to benchmark your utility consumption against other K-12 facilities in your geographic area so can compare how you are doing.

Find a professional energy services firm that can help you integrate the process.

About the author – Paul Harrell is a business development manager with Navitas. His background as a Certified Public Accountant and 33 years of experience in the education sector help him bring a practical approach to developing strategies for school districts wanting guidance in how to manage their overall budget and utility costs. He can be reached at pharrell@navitas.us.com or 913-344-0049

Are You Going to Make a Decision About Energy Efficiency?

July 7, 2017

The following Navitas article was published in the Spring Pre-Conference 2017 issue of the Missouri School Plant Manager magazine, published by PTR Communications. The Missouri School Plant Manager magazine is the official publication of the Missouri School Plant Manager’s Association (http://www.mspma.com).

Towards Greater Energy Efficiency: You’ve Already Made Some Crucial Decision, Whether You Realize It or Not

By Ryan Terry (rterry@navitas.us.com)

Are You Going to Make a Decision About Energy Efficiency? Whether you know it or not, you actually have made a decision on energy efficiency. Whether you have decided to do nothing, pursued a traditional process of repairing/replacing systems and equipment, or hired an expert to help you make your energy decisions, decisions have been made.

Have you made the right decisions? Are you as energy efficient as you could be? Are you doing everything you can to make sure your organization is successful?

Most older buildings were not designed with efficient use of energy in mind. In fact, even many of the newer buildings that were designed to be energy efficient are not constructed or operated as intended. Not only does this inefficient operation result in a larger “carbon footprint” but the fact is, inefficient buildings cost more money to run and are less comfortable for occupants.

Whether buildings are new or old, they can be energy efficient. Many schools have begun the transition from doing nothing to having their own staff implement energy-efficient strategies, to hiring contractors or maybe hiring an Energy Service Company. Each of these options may have different benefits, but all are better than doing nothing.

Many schools find themselves doing nothing and choose to close their eyes on the fact that their costs for utilities are high and continue to increase every year. Even though the potential for savings is there, they continue to have utility costs eat further and further into their budgets. They choose to not take the time to understand how much they spend on energy and how that compares to what they should be spending.

There may be other priorities and decisions that need to be made on things that feel more pressing. They continue to do nothing until they find themselves in a spot where other things are not as pressing, they get in financial difficulties, have pressing facility issues or learn something new that causes them to realize their energy costs are a problem.

How and Where to Start

First, take some time to try and understand your problems. Why are you interested in doing something about this? Did you decide you are spending too much on energy? Do you have other places you would like to spend that money? Talk to your administrators, facility staff and others that are impacted by the energy consuming systems you have in your buildings.

Consider talking to other professionals to get their perspectives. Architects, engineers, contractors and Energy Service Companies can provide you with knowledge and experience from their fields of expertise. Take the things you begin to learn and set out on a plan.

The next step involves defining a plan and approach. Do you want help from others or do you want to consider having others help you define a plan and create an approach. Some want help, others feel they can do it cheaper themselves. If this is you, you may be right.

Here is a way for you to think through your situation. It is true that architects, engineers, contractors and Energy Service Companies will charge for their services. Ask yourself if you believe their expertise can provide a better long-term value. The money you are saving by doing it yourself may be eaten up by substandard solutions and lost savings while you wait for projects to be completed.

Or there could be significant ideas or strategies that will provide savings that you haven’t learned about. A professional with significant experience may be able to help you achieve greater savings, more quickly that are more sustainable. Ask yourself these questions:

Energy Knowledge

Do you know how much energy your facilities consume?
Do you understand how and why energy is used in your facilities?
Are you familiar with the latest energy saving equipment, systems and strategies?
Do your energy saving ideas have many details that need to be evaluated and understood for proper implementation?

Systems and Equipment Knowledge

Do you have the ability to identify the real problems or determine the best solution?
Do you know what the issues are with your current equipment or systems?
Do you have the time and technical ability to investigate many products/solutions and determine which ones are the best?
Do you have the time and ability to put out an RFP and evaluate the proposals you get back?

Implementation Knowledge

Do you know how to manage the implementation of the solutions you decide on?
Does your staff have the time to install the equipment?
If it takes you longer to implement the solution how much will you lose in savings?
Are you comfortable managing contractors and vendors to make sure you are getting what you are paying for?
If they don’t do something correctly will you know?
What things will you hold your staff or the contractor accountable for? Schedule? Quality? Savings?

Operation Knowledge

Do you know how to maintain the solution appropriately?
Do you know how to operate it in the most efficient manner?
Will you know if it is not operating correctly or achieving the energy efficiency you expect?
If your bills don’t show the savings what will you do?

If you believe energy efficiency is important and are interested in having your district operate more efficiently, consider the accompanying Steps to Energy Efficiency. Whether you do them yourself or with a consultant, you can improve your situation. Each step builds on the preceding one to optimize your facilities into high-performance schools.

Steps to Energy Efficiency

What decisions will you make about energy efficiency? As this question arises in your organization, help educate others that what you do has a large impact on your overall financial success. Consult with outside professionals as appropriate, and continue doing all you can to improve the quality of education provided in the state of Missouri.

Click here to download a PDF of the article from the Missouri School Plant Manager magazine.

Should I Wait to Fix my Boiler?

May 22, 2017

old boiler

If an HVAC technician told you your furnace was old and needed to be replaced, even if it was currently running OK, would you replace it?

For most people, perhaps myself included, the answer is no! In my head I would think that my boiler maybe has another 1–2 years of life left. I would also think that if it did fail, I would call up my tech, he’d say “I told you so”. Then I’d pay a premium for an emergency install. But at least I’d think I got my money’s worth from that piece of equipment!

It’s not quite the same situation in a commercial building or in a school, but I still run across this scenario pretty often—even in facilities that can’t afford to lose a single day because of the lack of heating (or cooling).

Equipment failure can cause heartburn – from the increase in cost of an emergency installation to lost days of occupancy. Additionally, since during failures time isn’t an available commodity, one scenario that isn’t often considered is whether it would be best for the entire system to be replaced.

Waiting to replace equipment until it fails typically locks a facility to the existing system for another 25–30 years.

In buildings that have 50+ year old hot water pipes, does it make sense to install a new boiler when the pipes should also be replaced?

Does it make sense to replace a water cooled chiller when the entire system—from the cooling tower to the air handlers—also needs replacement?

Sometimes, the answer is yes, sometimes it’s maybe, sometimes it’s no. Before committing another 25–30 years to an existing HVAC system, understand there are many ways to provide for a clean, comfortable space.

Talk to your provider and explore your options before equipment fails.

— Ryan Terry (rterry@navitas.us.com)