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TIME TO ACT:
Save 20% or more on HVAC. It’s important now more than ever for a sustainable future!
Optimizing PTAC units with a “smart” device is a fast, easy, and cost-effective way to achieve Commercial HVAC Energy Savings. A Packaged Terminal Air Conditioner is a type of self-contained heating and air conditioning system commonly found in: Hotels, Motels, Senior Housing Facilities, Hospitals, Condominiums, Apartment Buildings, and Add-on Rooms & Sunrooms.
Business owners and homeowners face increasing challenges with energy costs to save energy and money in Nebraska. PTAC Energy Saver offers an Adaptive Climate Controller (ACC). It is a proven HVAC energy saving device that quickly installs on PTAC units. There are many companies that claim to produce energy savings, but the ACC device is multi-panted and proven over many years. Plus, it has extensive validation tests by organizations such as:
- ConEdison, Manhattan Plaza New York City
- Environmental Test Laboratory, Ohio
- EME Consulting Engineers (Third Party), Sponsored by NYSERDA, New York
- State University of New York, Oneonta, NY
- Tim Garrison (Third Party Testing)
- McQuay Cooling Tests
- Purdue University Tests (Phoenix)
- ConEdison Tests by ERS
Typically, when an HVAC system turns off, shortly after, the blower fan motor turns off. The ACC reprograms the blower fan not to shut off but to throttle back the rpm airflow to an exceptionally low speed, quiescent level airflow or “idle speed”. This allows for a gentle but continuous air movement into the building that helps keep equilibrium of climate conditions in the occupied space and saved energy.
PTAC Energy Saver can help you navigate the complexity of HVAC energy saving choices: CONTACT PTAC Energy Saver
Here is an example of some Commercial HVAC Energy Saving info for Nebraska:
Nebraska making efficiciency push for state-owned buildings
Nebraska is making another stride on efficiency, launching an initiative to measure – and eventually reduce – the energy used in buildings throughout the state.
Last month, the federal Department of Energy preliminarily awarded the Nebraska Energy Office $300,000 to begin benchmarking energy use in all 3,762 state-owned buildings. The work is expected to get underway by early 2017.
While the project will begin with state-owned buildings, David Bracht doesn’t necessarily see it stopping there. He directs the Nebraska Energy Office, which will manage the use of the federal funds. As a second step, he anticipates “developing an energy performance benchmarking policy that we can offer to local governments to encourage their improvement in energy efficiency as well.”
He hopes that the practice might trickle out eventually to owners of private property as well.
Nebraska, which has typically lagged other parts of the country on efficiency policy, recently passed a PACE financing law, which could help property owners pay for improvements.
Impacts of benchmarking
Benchmarking usually refers to the use of a software program – such as Portfolio Manager, developed by the Environmental Protection Agency – that can be used to document the energy and water used in a given structure. The program can track those figures over time, or compare them to similar buildings under the same ownership, or against the national average of buildings of similar size and function.
Currently, according to the Institute for Market Transformation, two states, one county and 16 cities – including Chicago and Minneapolis – require all publicly-owned buildings and large privately-owned buildings to be benchmarked. Many other jurisdictions, including Kansas City, Missouri, now require public buildings to benchmark. In Iowa, more than 2,200 public buildings are now enrolled in Portfolio Manager.
There are indications that benchmarking – especially in privately-owned commercial property – is having an impact on energy use, according to Cliff Majersik, the Institute’s executive director.
“There have been a number of studies, and all are indicating that these laws appear to be saving energy and driving energy efficiency,” he said. “The trends are generally towards improving scores.”
Several studies have found that energy use dropped after benchmarking data was made public. A 2015 report published by Resources for the Future noted a 3 percent reduction in utility expenditures before and after disclosure among benchmarked office buildings in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin, Texas, the first cities to mandate reporting of energy and water use. The authors noted that their results were preliminary.
The San Francisco Urban Land Institute found that, between 2010 and 2014, energy use among 176 benchmarked properties fell by 7.9 percent.
The New York City Benchmarking and Transparency Policy Impact Evaluation Report, published in May 2015, determined that over the first four years of benchmarking in the city, buildings covered by the ordinance reduced energy use by 5.7 percent and decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 9.9 percent.
A second study done in New York City by the Green Building Council put the reductions at 6 percent for energy use and 8 percent for greenhouse gas emissions.
“We can’t say it’s all because of benchmarking scores,” Majersik cautioned, “but it’s consistent with the expectation that the laws create a virtuous cycle of competition among building-owners to improve the energy efficiency in their buildings, to attract and retain the best tenants and investors.”
The real power of benchmarking lies in the public disclosure of the information, Majersik observed. With a growing database of the energy and water used by commercial buildings, businesses shopping for space to rent or purchase now can access facts about energy use, and can factor that into their decision.
And benchmarking data is about to become more widespread – and more potent. Costar, the leading provider of commercial real-estate information, announced early this summer that later this year it would begin to include benchmarking data in its property descriptions. It will launch that feature in Chicago and Washington D.C.
