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Managing Energy Costs in Office Buildings
The website, E-source.com is dedicated to helping business owners make better, faster energy-related decisions. Take a look at their article which examines national data on how office buildings consume energy. It explains how companies are charged for utility costs and offers solutions for reducing them.
Below are some highlights. Click here to read the entire article.
- Office buildings in the U.S. use an average of 17 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and 32 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot annually. In a typical office building, lighting, heating, and cooling represent about 65 percent of total use, making those systems the best targets for energy savings. Energy represents about 19 percent of total expenditures for the typical office building. This clearly makes energy a significant operational cost deserving management attention.
- Quick fixes - Turning things off: Many office buildings can benefit from quick low-cost/no-cost energy-saving solutions, such as turning things off, turning things down, and keeping up with cleaning and maintenance.
This includes lights, computers and electronics - and don't forget the power of dimmers! Simply adding dimmers to lighting systems and occupational sensors in common lighting areas can make a significant difference.
- Longer-term solutions: Commissioning and Lighting Measures
Commissioning is a process in which engineers check and tune up building systems to ensure that they are operating appropriately and efficiently. Studies have shown that continuously monitoring a building's energy systems can lead to reductions of 10 to 15 percent in annual energy bills. For the typical 50,000-squarefoot office building, that's equal to about $11,000 in savings per year!
Lighting Measures-Fluorescent lamps: If your facility uses T12 fluorescent lamps, relamping with modern T8 lamps and electronic ballasts can reduce your lighting energy consumption by 35 percent. Adding specular reflectors, new lenses, and occupancy sensors or timers can double the savings. Paybacks of one to three years are common. | 
