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Demand Side Energy Management
If you are trying to reach out to get that "low hanging fruit" that everyone talks about, but don't know where to start, performing an energy audit is the first step in assessing where and how you are using energy. Small, Medium, and Large retailers can all benefit from an energy audit in one form or another; they can identify what can be done to reduce your usage and improve your load profile, especially if your facilities are in utility service areas that have heavy demand charges.
- For Large and Medium sized retailers, this may be the lowest hanging fruit of all, but one of the most overlooked means of saving energy. Obtaining your energy usage data on a regular basis, and establishing your benchmark energy usage through your meter data is critical to controlling your energy usage and costs. Normally, the most appropriate use of these tools applies to meters with demand greater than 50 kW.
- Regardless of the size of your store or facility, if you haven't installed an EMS or BAS yet, you won't be able to maximize the efficiency of your facility operations without one.
The presumption exists that low hanging fruit is also the least expensive option; that is not always the case. For example, those 20 year old + multi-zone package units that are using almost 2 kW per ton are one of the easiest choices, with tremendous returns on investment, but also are more capital intensive to complete.
Although most small retail stores don't utilize variable speed drives, for Large and Medium size businesses, the advancements in VSD/VFD technologies have made it possible to improve the efficiencies of HVAC systems virtually across the board.
Retail stores of any size can benefit from a review of their lighting systems, and retrofits.
While almost every retail business in the U.S. has converted from T-12 Fluorescent lamps to T-8 lamps, not everyone has looked at other opportunities. In retail, it's not just about light levels, it's about color, beam spread, ambient lighting levels, accent lighting, focusing accent lighting properly, and doing it all efficiently, with low lamp and ballast costs.
No matter if your store is large or small, if you have a neon or fluorescent sign, you should take a closer look at LED sign retrofits. Talk about low hanging fruit; how low can you go? How easy is it to retrofit your existing sign lighting to LED fixtures? With the newest technologies able to match up with most customer's color requirements, it's easier than ever. Most systems save between 60% to 90% over your existing usage.
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