Pros & Cons of an Energy Audit.

An auditor can aid you in avoiding investments in well-marketed technologies with dubious energy-saving potential.

FREMONT, CA: In broad terms, an energy audit (or water audit) involves collecting and analyzing billing data for all energy sources and finding total energy usage, a site analysis to identify where energy is utilized and energy savings opportunities, doing calculations to estimate the cost/benefit of the energy savings opportunities, and producing and offering a report which recommends what can be done to save energy.

The two main outputs of an energy/water audit are an assessment of how much energy is utilized, where it's used at an individual facility, And an identification of energy savings opportunities, quantified with estimates of the investment necessary and annual savings expected for each opportunity.

Advantages and disadvantages of an energy audit

Advantages of an energy audit

An energy audit will offer you a list of action items, with estimated costs and benefits, to decrease your energy usage, energy costs, and carbon footprint. With this clear guidance, it's easy to prioritize and know exactly what to do to mitigate your energy costs and greenhouse gas ejections, how much you'll require to spend, and what you can expect to save.

When started by an experienced energy auditor:

• An auditor should be able to identify more savings opportunities than you could on your own.

• An auditor can come up with an estimate of savings with an acceptable degree of accuracy (as determined by the audit scope).

• An auditor can distinguish likely desired and undesired consequences of a particular upgrade and undertake calculations to quantify them. Eg. In cold weather, the auditor would quantify both the electricity savings arising from upgrading office lighting to high-efficiency LED and the greater energy usage of the heating system to heat the buildings (as more efficient lights generate less heat, heat which generally helps keep the office warm). The maintenance savings from longer-lasting LEDs would also be identified.

• An auditor can give you up-to-date advice on specific technologies.

• An auditor can aid you in avoiding investments in well-marketed technologies with dubious energy-saving potential.

Identify low-risk measures – an advantage of an energy audit.

Disadvantages of energy audits

The key drawback of an audit is that it doesn't save any energy. It won't decrease your carbon footprint. Your energy bills won't drop.

It will say how to save energy, but action on the report's recommendations has to be taken to save energy.

Some other disadvantages are:

• The audit has a "date of expiry" or limited helpful life. As technologies change, energy tariffs change, the use of a facility changes over time, and the guidance and numbers in energy audits will become outdated. Therefore, energy audit standards generally consider that energy audits should be repeated every three years.

• An energy audit isn't a design or work specification. You'll still be required to invest in a design and specification to gain a project "shovel ready."

• The audit could be poorly done, particularly if you haven't provided a clear scope of work to the auditor and have been careful in auditor selection.

• The outcomes of an audit cannot be predicted. You do not have a clue whether or not you can reduce your electricity usage by 25% with less than a one-year payback (not usual, but I've certainly seen this result) or by just 10% with a six-year payback (on the other extreme, also rare, but I've seen this result too).