Use these common low or no-cost strategies to reduce energy, improve your building’s performance and save money!
1.Optimize outdoor air flows
To reduce energy caused by unnecessary heating and cooling, optimize your systems to bring in the right amount of outdoor air for current uses and occupant needs.
2. Reduce simultaneous heating and cooling
To save energy and potentially improve occupant comfort, revise the control sequences of your HVAC system.
3. Optimize equipment scheduling
To reduce energy consumption caused by excessive equipment run-time, align your building’s HVAC and lighting operating schedules with building occupancy.
4. Optimize chilled water plant operation
Reduce the energy consumed by your building’s chilled water plant system by increasing/re-setting the chilled water supply temperature, reducing condenser water temperature, or implementing simultaneous cooling tower operation.
5. Control parkade exhaust fans
Instead of using a purge cycle or continuous run, control parkade fan run-time based on gas detection. This way, fans will run only as needed to maintain a safe environment, and you’ll eliminate
unnecessary fan energy consumption.
6. Fine-tune Variable Speed Drives (VSD) settings
To optimize VSD settings and save energy, remove the manual overrides, as running them on one speed can cause the equipment to run harder than needed.
7. Implement a pressure reset strategy
For variable-speed pumps and fans, implement a pressure reset strategy. This will modulate the motor speed to match the flow rate required by the system.
8. Calibrate sensors and check end-devices regularly
To accurately control system parameters, calibrate your HVAC system’s sensors and end devices.
9. Take advantage of free cooling
To cool your building, use cool outdoor air (airside free cooling) instead of your chiller plant. Similarly, generate chilled water by using a heat exchanger and cooling tower (waterside free cooling)
in lieu of your chiller plant.
10. Identify leakage and insulation issues in the building envelope
To highlight ‘hot spots’ for targeted repairs use a thermographic scan to identify any problem areas associated with air leakage, areas of missing or ineffective insulation, and thermal conduction
losses.
Posted on behalf of Halsall
Contact: Edward (Ted) Cook ecook@halsall.com