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What Does Your Building’s Electricity Cost Per Square Foot Say About Its Efficiency?
Jan 6th
Making a building energy efficient has two benefits: it reduces the building’s carbon footprint and annual utility bill. To get the best results in both cases, energy efficiency should be practiced as a science and not as a fashion; that is, companies should hire an energy efficiency consultant to perform and energy audit of their building(s) before moving forward with plans for efficient design, which in the absence of an efficiency consultant usually amounts to one off projects that improve a building’s efficiency in one area but not systematically, which should be the goal.
Determining the Ideal Electricity Cost Per Square Foot for your Building
For most companies, electricity is the single biggest utility cost, in many cases accounting for upwards of 90 percent of a building’s annual utility bill. Consequently, one of the core practices of an energy audit is calculating a building’s electricity cost per square foot. A company’s ideal electricity cost per square foot depends on several factors, including what type of building it is (e.g. industrial facility versus office building) and the climate it resides in. Once measurements are taken, they’re often compared to the electricity cost per square foot of similar buildings in similar climates.
The biggest advantage of having an efficiency consultant perform an energy audit is that it results in targeted solutions for your building’s problems areas from greatest to least, which can be implemented on a priority basis. Without this knowledge, companies usually begin by replacing what they think is their least efficient equipment with more efficient equipment. Sometimes companies guess correctly about what to replace. But they can also spend big money on solutions that don’t address the biggest problem areas first.
In most commercial buildings, the biggest source of electricity use is an interior lighting system, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of the average commercial building’s annual electric bill. Second to interior lighting is an HVAC system, which accounts for roughly 30 percent of a building’s electrical use. As a result, interior lighting and HVAC systems are commonly targeted for energy efficient retrofitting, a process where a building’s systems are outfitted to accommodate more efficient equipment.
In an interior lighting system, traditional lamps and ballasts are usually replaced with more efficient ones, and an automatic lighting control system may be added to the new lighting. In HVAC systems, traditionally oversized elements, such as chillers and air distribution fans are downsized, thus reducing their energy usage. By hiring an energy efficiency consultant and taking a systematic approach to energy efficiency, many companies realize a 50 percent or more reduction in their annual utility bill.
Electricity Before And Now
Jan 6th
Our ancestors discovered that rubbing amber produces electric charge. This is a form of electricity, which is essential to nature and is of the most popular forms of energy. The conversion of main energy sources such as oil, coal, natural gas, fossils and nuclear power all produce electricity. Several cities were built at the side of waterfalls that functions by turning water wheels to perform the work. Before the electricity generation began, the houses were lit by kerosene lamps and foods were kept cold inside iceboxes, and bedrooms were warmed by firewood. Today’s needs of such as fans, fluorescent lights, air conditioners and refrigerators are taken from the brilliant ideas of inventors and scientists that live thousands of years ago. There were actually many other brilliant minds that influenced and contributed significantly to modern electricity. Some of them wanted to evolve around existing ideas and others saw their interest aroused with each new experiment until such time they found something great. Now we all now every electricity invention started somewhere ordinary before it became something great.
As the price of gas continue to rise, living has become hard and the need for alternative energy became a want, which must be applied to replace the world’s addiction to oil. There have been many attempts to generate alternative electrical energy which can be converted to power supply. There are also many methods of this. They have covered practically everything from solar energy to saving electricity tips. While the people’s energy dependence is unlikely to decrease, an increase of new energy technologies is likely to increase. These innovations focus largely on efficiency and energy conservation.
In this age of increasing concern on climate change, enhancing energy efficiency in houses and buildings can lower carbon emissions and provide considerable financial return to people who apply green technology to their environment. If you reduce the use electricity you will be helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While many key government industry sources reject the notion that crisis in global energy crisis is impending, others believe the crisis already exists and not many people know about it. The energy crisis is no joke and it is not leaving, and it is the government’s responsibility to do its part in supporting communities by providing tax credits or rebates to consumers who are actually reducing their combined power consumption to more than ten percent of the your electricity last year. People need a comprehensive planning to avoid future problems and crises. Regardless of the cost of electricity, using less electricity consumption will always cost you less.
The uses of electricity are unlimited. Human history shows great reliance on using electric power. And the surprising part is that electricity can provide no cost when infrastructure exists to harness its power.