Fall: The Best Time to Think About Energy
by Mike Troupos
Autumn is here. As the weather cools off and the days get shorter, the first thing I think of is our culture’s obsession with pumpkin spice. These days it seems like everything is pumpkin spice flavored – whiskey, cheerios, and even English muffins (I’m not joking). If there is one thing I wish more people thought of in the fall, it’s energy. Who are we kidding - if you read enough of these blogs, you’ll find all I think about is energy. As the seasons change, there are many things you can do to set yourself up for utilities to stay as low as possible at your house and place of business.
HVAC
The most significant energy change in the fall is the switch from cooling to heating. While in the shoulder months, be sure to open windows and get fresh air into your facility while capitalizing on free heating or cooling. At some point, it gets too cool, and opening the windows doesn’t warm your space anymore. Check your thermostat or building automation system (BMS) and do the following:
• Change the system from cooling to heating
• Check the schedule and make sure it is still relevant for how the facility is operating
• Check the setpoints and make sure they are set as low as possible while still creating a comfortable space
• Check the time and day. Daylight savings and previous program errors can reduce comfort and savings.
Beyond your controls, change the air filter on the facility’s unit before going into a time of high usage in the winter. If you have a condensing unit outside, it can be beneficial to cover it in the winter for longer life. Finally, if you have not serviced your boilers and furnaces in the past two years, it is time to have a mechanical technician come out and tune them up. Tune-ups can improve efficiency by up to 3%; they typically have a simple payback of under one year.
Insulation
Is your insulation at your building or house old? If so, your heating cost will be higher than they need to be. Check weather strips under doors, and if it is no longer firm, replace it with a new one. At your house, check the insulation in your attic. You should have at least 10 inches to reduce heat loss. Truck docs can be the biggest source of heat loss at industrial buildings, so consider replacing the seals on the older docks. If you have a dock that is not active, consider putting plywood or something else on top of it to reduce draftiness.
Miscellaneous Changes
If your facility has a snowmelt system, turn it on and make sure it operates properly. During the summer, I turn off the heated dry on my dishwasher as it seems unnecessary to heat my house in the summer. However, in the winter, turn on the heated dry for a faster cycle and add a little heat to the home. Additionally, put the grill away for the winter and use the oven for cooking – the warm kitchen is a nice byproduct.
Conclusion
As I discussed in my last ideas post, energy prices are going up this winter. If you follow the above advice, you can keep energy usage as low as possible and blunt some cost increases. Do you have any other energy-saving tricks in the fall? If so, I’d love to hear about them.