Energy Efficiency

In today's news, Helio Energy Management Solutions, (HelioEMS), an energy services company, announced its Energy Efficiency contract with food ingredient manufacturer, Amoretti®, the Title Sponsor of the National as well as the World Pastry Team Championships since 2005.

To support Amoretti’s sustainable energy goals, the Energy Efficiency contract will implement lighting, HVAC and monitoring facility improvement measures based on the findings of an initial Energy Audit conducted by HelioEMS.  The company engineers and installs energy solutions designed to provide sustainable energy, improve facility efficiency and reduce energy costs.

“Amoretti manufacturers over 1800 ingredients for the food industry in one facility located in Oxnard, CA explained HelioEMS Managing Director, Thomas R. (TR) Bietsch.  “The Energy Audit we conducted revealed we could help them manage their energy usage more efficiently and reduce their overall energy consumption. The essential deliverables included using less energy, intelligently controlling the load and shedding load per the utility request in demand response. These objectives support both their company financial and environmental goals.”

The contract calls for the reduction of HVAC and refrigeration costs and related engineering including lighting improvements, monitoring and long term energy planning, aimed at reducing peak demand and developing a demand response strategy which will include load shifting and other strategies.

“Perfection is the mission we bring to our food ingredient preparation,” said Amoretti Chief Executive Officer, Jack Barsoumian.  “Working with the HelioEMS team, we are able to bring this same passion to our sustainable energy goals.”

The lion’s share of electricity consumed at most homes and business goes toward lighting and space cooling. We seem to be moving in the right direction on lighting as the highly efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) become much more popular. An equal improvement in efficiency comes in the form of the long fluorescent tubes we’ve all grown up with. The older style T12 lamp with its often noisy magnetic ballast is quite inefficient. The newer and much more efficient lamp is the T8. The number, by the way, refers to the lamp diameter in eights of an inch. This smaller diameter lamp produces substantially more light and uses less electricity. They also look the same and fit into fixtures that are nearly identical to the outdated style. Imagine my amazement when I walked into my local Home Improvement store, looking for new lights, only to find an impressive display of fixtures, using the old inefficient T12 lamps!!! Let’s see, new T8 lamps, less electricity, more light, no more cost, looks the same, aaaaahhhh! We still don’t get it.

So here’s more information to help shed light on light bulb confusion, save money and the environment…

Lighting is a critical component of every business. For more information on T8's and all types of lighting for the work place, click here for more Energy Star online information.

FAQ’s on Compact Fluorescent lights (CFLs) from Energy Star, including comparison to traditional bulbs, how to clean up and dispose of CFL’s and mercury emissions comparisons, June 2008.

You will find tons of information on Wikipedia including history, manufacturing, colors and lots of links for CFLs.

"One Energy Star qualified bulb can save about $30 or more in energy costs over its lifetime. The average home has approximately 30 light fixtures. If every U.S. household replaced just one light bulb or fixture with an Energy Star, our country would save more than $600 million each year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 800,000 cars." Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, January 18, 2008

Join the Energy Star Change a Light campaign, which has received more than 1 million pledges from Americans across the country to change nearly 4 million light bulbs to Energy Star CFLs, equating to potential savings of more than $100 million in energy costs and the prevention of more than 1.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. To join Americans already taking the ENERGY STAR Change a Light, Change the World pledge, visit http://www.energystar.gov/changealight.

By Michael Murray, Director, HelioEMS, an Energy Management Solutions Company

For commercial facility operators, reducing the amount of electricity you use and managing how you use electricity isn’t the same thing, especially if you’re goal is to save money. What your utility charges you for electricity is a complex formula of how much electricity, the time of day it’s used, how much you’ve used during the month, how fast you used it (think demand charge) and a plethora of other user fees and charges. For example; a 20% reduction in energy usage may only produce a 7% reduction in cost, yet a slight shift in energy usage when all equipment is running could result in a 30-40% reduction in monthly costs even if the total energy used remains the same. The best way to reduce electrical energy costs is to understand how the utility charges you and engineer a strategy to manage your electrical usage in way that provides the greatest reduction in costs. This solution, by the way, is also the solution which makes it easier on your utility company and provides the most benefit to the environment.

Author: Michael Murray, Director, Helio Energy Management Solutions (Helio EMS)

For commercial facility operators, reducing the amount of electricity you use and managing how you use electricity isn’t the same thing, especially if you’re goal is to save money. What your utility charges you for electricity is a complex formula of how much electricity, the time of day it’s used, how much you’ve used during the month, how fast you used it (think demand charge) and a plethora of other user fees and charges. For example; a 20% reduction in energy usage may only produce a 7% reduction in cost, yet a slight shift in energy usage when all equipment is running could result in a 30-40% reduction in monthly costs even if the total energy used remains the same. The best way to reduce electrical energy costs is to understand how the utility charges you and engineer a strategy to manage your electrical usage in way that provides the greatest reduction in costs. This solution, by the way, is also the solution which makes it easier on your utility company and provides the most benefit to the environment.

Author: Michael Murray, Director, Helio Energy Management Solutions (Helio EMS)

Editor's Note: Photo is of Scott Gordon residence and his solar power array system

Federal Tax Credits are available for solar power and other energy efficiency systems…but time is running out unless they are extended in Washington! Residential and commercial solar installations must be commissioned by the end of the year to qualify for the existing incentives. There are of course also state and utility incentives available. A qualified solar integration firm can help you with these calculations. Federal Tax incentive information can be found on the Energy Star website.