How Facility Management Experts Help You in Saving Costs by Conserving Energy
Energy consumption is one of the main concerns for most of the commercial or institutional building owners today. Many of them neglect the crucial aspect of conserving energy and pay huge electrical bills. Are you one among them paying huge energy bills which can be avoided? If yes, consider contacting professional facility management experts.
Facility management experts use a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of your facility. They adopt energy-efficient practices specific to your facility to conserve energy while improving the comfort level of your facility. Let us see how facility managers minimize costs by saving energy, without disturbing the comfort, safety and productivity of the occupants of the facility.
Conduct energy audits to identify energy wastes: The first thing facility management experts do is the facility energy audit. They assess how much energy your facility is consuming and evaluate the measures to improve the efficiency of your facility. Facility managers conduct energy audits at different levels. Basically there are three levels of energy audit – level zero, level one and level two. These experts identify the level that best suits the needs of the client.
Level zero is for facilities which require quick and brief screening. Level one measures buildings energy cost by brief on site survey, through which it provides saving and cost analysis of low/no cost measures. Level two will receive a more detailed survey and energy analysis, which will suggest practical measures to change operational and maintenance procedures that can conserve more energy. Not only once, they regularly conduct energy audits to identify the energy wastes.
Make use of renewable energy sources: Facility managers know that audits alone cannot conserve energy. They properly plan and integrate renewable energy systems to improve the energy performance of the facility. Some of the renewable sources they generally use include solar electric systems, wind turbine systems, and geo thermal systems. They make extensive modifications to these systems before connecting them to the utility grid. They also provide periodic maintenance for the long run and high performance of these systems.
Use energy efficient lighting: Experts from reputed facility management firms have many options to conserve energy by using effective lighting techniques. Using latest lighting technology, they can cut lighting energy costs significantly. They try to choose energy efficient retrofits that increase the quality of lighting, occupant satisfaction and save more energy. High efficiency replacements for incandescent lamps, lamps with electronic ballasts are widely used for upgrading the lighting system. They also increase the energy efficiency by taking advantage of the “Daylighting” – the use of natural sunlight to brighten up and/or warm a facility’s interior.
Use zoned HVAC systems: Most successful energy management programs are focused on the proper usage of zoned HVAC systems. New technologies allow facility managers to opt HVAC systems to reduce energy usage by 25-50 percent without disturbing occupants’ comfort and indoor air quality. They try to balance air and water systems that are out of balance and install energy efficient equipment.
Install programmable thermostats: With a goal to save more energy and money, facility managers install programmable thermostats, which offer the flexibility to manually override a given program for both shorter and longer periods. With pre-defined settings, they can increase and decrease the temperatures when the offices are empty and return to the temperature to a comfortable range just before employees arrive to work. With these systems, the facility management team offers great comfort, convenience and cost efficiency.
Educate the occupants on efficient energy use: Apart from installing and upgrading energy efficient systems, facility managers also create awareness among the occupants on efficient energy use. Though many of the systems are fully automated, they still need human monitoring to ensure proper performance. Expert facility managers offer many tips and techniques to the occupants to optimize the facility’s performance.
Facilities can minimize the costs on energy by taking the help of experienced facility management team. The money spent on the modifications (suggested by facility managers) will be paid back many times over the long run, which makes the occupant’s investment more justifiable.
FME, one of the leading facilities management companies, provides a one-stop facility shop for managing all aspects of your building operations. FME offers consultation and planning services as well as design and build disciplines. Our facility management services include maintaining your facility and provide repairs like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, carpentry, roofing and other commercial janitorial services.
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