Continuing in our church energy series, we’ve been taking a look at lighting upgrades as a relatively quick and effective way to reduce energy usage and operational costs. In this post, we turn to the high bay gym style fixtures that are often used as house lights. Continue Reading →
Last time we compared the difference in church energy savings achieved if your church switched to CFLs or LEDs. Today we take a look at another simple example: Replacing incandescent bulbs in recessed pot lights with LED bulbs. Continue Reading →
Last time we discussed why your church should switch to CFL, LED, and/or Induction lighting ASAP to get fast church energy savings. Just how fast will upgrading pay you back? Today we take a look at two examples. Continue Reading →
If your church is working towards being a more energy efficient church, you will need to the changes made through upgrades. A previous post in this series discussed the importance of setting energy efficiency goals for your church. Now it’s time to measure your results.
The numbers are important and you have to make sure you are getting the right numbers – which leads me to my main point of the post:
Your energy bill lists the energy used in kilowatt-hours and the $$$ money you owe the utility company. This doesn’t specifically tell you how the church is using the energy it purchased. For instance, you may have upgraded a room to LED’s, but it’s impact won’t show up on the bill if you had to run the AC longer because of a heat wave. The energy bill is impacted by activity in the building, conditions outside of the building, and current energy rates.
Activity at churches across America picks up during the fall and peaks during the holiday season. We see another activity spike during Easter. Then activity drops off during the summertime. So, is your church more energy efficient in the summer or do you just run less programming while the congregation is on vacation?
In certain regions around the country some churches have to run their heat for long hours. In others, AC usage places considerable demand on utility companies. Churches like any other commercial facility require gobs of energy for heating and air conditioning. So, environmental conditions may have caused your energy bill to go up (or down) because of varying usage unrelated to your recent upgrades.
Utilities are under extraordinary pressure to adapt to “smart” technology to reduce outages and grid maintenance. They are increasingly looking for ways to pass on costs to the users of the energy they provide. You may look at your bill and be surprised that your usage went down, but the cost went up.
These are examples of why relying on your energy bill alone is not enough to measure the impact of the change. Long term results hinge on your churches ability to keep track of actual reduction of energy usage in a way that is independent of church activity. Some improvements do require behavioral changes. But the measurement of improvement through changes in technology must be added to the equation.
As you begin to make changes towards being a more energy efficient church, an energy management system would be the best option for on-going monitoring of progress in reducing energy usage. However, small systems can be tracked using very simple energy measurement devices. I hope to explore and review a few of these devices in upcoming posts. Stay tuned.
If you hope to make changes at your church to reduce energy usage, you need to be able to monitor your systems in real-time. Your church energy bill simply does not give you the details you need to make smart decisions about where you can reduce energy usage. The bill will not give you insights about how much energy is used for lighting, audio, video, IT, HVAC, or communications systems. Energy management solutions allow you to get those details that show what’s going on at the system level.
Here’s a quick example of what I am talking about here. A lot of new cars include an “eco trip” feature. The purpose of this feature is to assist the driver in saving gas (energy) during each trip. The dash gives the driver visual feedback in the form of a score or mpg (miles per gallon) rating based on the drivers behavior. If a driver’s behavior is really aggressive on the road, they will get a bad score. Conversely, if they pay attention to the score and adjust their behavior, they can get better results. So as a church, if you know exactly where your energy hogs are, you can adjust their behavior to reduce energy usage in those areas. This will lead to efficient use and tangible savings. A monitoring solution provides that real-time feedback.
There are a handful of portable solutions on the market that allow you to monitor one or two devices at a time. The idea here is that you plug the monitor into an outlet, and then plug the device that you want to track into the monitor. The P3 Kill-A-Watt is one such device which gives you a readout of the kWh (kilowatt-hours) right on its display. Another example out there is the Insteon Hub which does the same thing as the P3 but adds wifi network monitoring from a mobile or web app. There are also third party apps out there that will allow you to control and monitor the devices that you have connected to the hub.
Companies that make power conditioners have integrated energy monitoring features into their products. These products can be dropped into an equipment rack and connected just like a power conditioner. These are different from traditional power conditioners because they are network connected. When paired with web apps within the product eco system, end users can remotely track the energy usage of all connected devices down to the specific plug on the back of the unit. Some examples include the Furman BlueBolt series and the JuiceGoose IP series.
A complete solution is one that is integrated at the breaker panels at your church or even across several church campuses. This utility level investment provides real-time data of all energy activities. When paired with a proprietary software solution, the management system will give facility managers the ability to scrutinize every aspect of usage and possible savings across multiple systems and facilities. Highly efficient corporations, manufacturing plants, hospitals, government buildings and universities utilize complete energy management systems to maximize their energy usage, productivity, and profits. This will usually be a custom solution that can be integrated when you build a new facility or retrofitted to existing buildings.
Next time we will discuss automation, the intelligent choice for securing lasting energy savings at your church.