What is a new technology that can help businesses save money by reducing energy use?

[Folca]

What is a new technology that can help businesses save money by reducing energy use? Specificaly in a company like Fidelity, AutoDesk, Margarittas Resturaunt or Cool Air Clean Planet?

[Sasha45]

It is called raising taxes. Soon, the work force will decline and the offices will not require so much energy to run the utilities.

[WandaBAllen]

There are now so many devices available for reducing energy use. Among others:
1) use CFLs or compact floursescent lamps instead of the bar or circular flourescent lamps
2) install solar water heaters on the roofdeck and put in piping into your toilets and shower rooms
3) install solar cells for electricity use, either partially or complete replacement together with battery banks. You will need a separate, well-ventilated room for the batteries.
4) remove the curtains and put in outside the windows wooden or hard plastic jalousies to shield the rooms from direct sunlight but admit enough sunlight to switch off the lights.
5) sectionalize the electric wiring for the lighting such that you can switch off a portion of the lamps for the areas without people working.
6) instead of centralized airconditioning, put in window-type or stand-alone air con units. Again for those areas without people working, you can switch off the individual air con units.
7) where possible, use ceiling electric fans instead of aircon units. Or, use the combination of the two - - - fans at the start of the office hours. Later, when there are enough people in the room, switch on the aircons and switch off the fans.

[Inzilbêth]

Hi Jenny,

There are actually quite a few companies that have become more environmentally conscious. They have also saved a lot of money on energy since they have begun to us alternative energy sources like wind and solar power.

The shoe company, Timberland is a really good example.

The solar panel at Timberland's Ontario distribution center was designed, engineered and installed by Northern Power; Sharp is the manufacturer of this 400 kW solar power system. This is Timberland's second distribution center to be powered in part by clean energy sources.

Its European Distribution Center in Enschede, Holland is 100% powered by wind, waste steam and small-scale hydro-power sources. Additionally, wind power generates energy and solar power heats 100% of the water at Timberland's Dominican Republic manufacturing facility.

Timberland's solar power initiative and its Earth Day volunteer activities are just two examples of the company's environmental stewardship. Timberland recently announced an environmentally-friendly packaging and labeling initiative that will debut later this year.

Hope this helps.

[Akshay_M]

Limiting use of vehicles (especially airplanes) will save a lot of fuel. Planing shopping rather than driving three miles for a quart of milk will help. Every little action taken makes a difference.

If a hundred million households reduce their consumption by ten watts (by unplugging the wall wort power supplies for cell phones or laptops when the device is not charging) the gigawatt not used 24–7 would be the output of a medium sized nuclear power station. Ten watts is almost nothing but if enough people saved 10 watts it would make a huge difference.

One of the best investments a homeowner can make is having a certified building performance audit performed by a professional. Where I live in central VT they cost between $300 and $400, and include a “blower-door” test. A good contractor will also document any air quality risks. The contractor will lay out a schedule of repairs and renovation recommendations that should be done in order to prevent excess moisture leading to rot or mold. Other issues of venting from a gas drier or gas water heater will also be considered in the plan. The contractor will measure the efficiency of the heating boiler or furnace. A home retrofitted or renovated from a certified audit plan will be more comfortable, safer, and use less energy.

Our state offers incentives paid for by a monthly charge on everybody’s electric bills that will pay for much of the cost of an audit. Then depending on the homeowners income there are cash incentives for work done as recommended by the audit. If the contractor that did the audit also does some of the work the rest of the audit cost is often “forgiven” . There are also tax incentives for having work done.

If a typical home is using more than 40,000 BTU’s per square foot per year for a combination of lights, refrigeration, AC, heating, cooking, and domestic hot water it is usually possible to reduce the energy use by a third or more. The largest savings are usually from air sealing to reduce heat and AC. An efficient home should use less than 20,000.

A typical “button-up” air sealing and insulation retrofit can cost several thousand dollars. Local banks and credit unions have (perhaps subsidized?) low interest loans for financing the button up work. The typical return of cost is less than five years. The financing is often structured so that the homeowner will save enough on energy to make the payments, so by the time the mortgage is paid the total outlay will be the same as it would have cost without the work. In effect the renovation adds no additional expense. After the debt is paid the savings is pocketed.

The simplest way to substantially reduce the electricity used for lighting is to replace all light bulbs with LED bulbs. Even most mercury florescent fixtures can be converted to use relatively inexpensive LED tubes. The same agency that pays for the other energy improvements often provides LED replacements for sale at hardware stores at reduced prices.

A poorly insulated water heater can be insulated with a “blanket kit”, or if it is old it should probably be replaced with a new one that is very well insulated. All exposed hot water pipes can be insulated with foam sleeves very inexpensively.

Leaking window and door frames can be made tight with V-strip tape or other weatherstrip methods. Replacing windows and doors may be necessary but often air leaks can be mitigated.

More expensive items like refrigerators or freezers can be replaced with “Energy Star” new ones. An aging refrigerator that is consuming five or six kWh per day can be replaced with one using 2kWh per day. At our $.25/ kWh utility rate that is a dollar per day in wasted energy saved. If the new refrigerator costs $600 the new one will recover its cost in savings in less than two years. There are also grants and reduced interest loans that can assist the purchase if a household qualifies. It is possible to spend many times that on a designer brand refrigerator but that is not done to save energy, although it may save energy.

If money is no object a 15 kW (or more) pv array and a BEV electric car might get a household to near net zero energy consumption.