Energy Audit Services for
Commercial and Institutional Facilities
Commercial and institutional facility owners and operators need more than a glance at their utility bills to understand how their facilities use energy. Engineering Economics, Inc. (EEI) provides independent, third-party energy audit services to help facility owners root out inefficiencies, validate system performance, and identify opportunities for cost and carbon reduction. With our independent third-party expertise, our clients can achieve significant cost and savings opportunities and optimize their building energy efficiency for maximum performance.
What an Energy Audit Reveals About Your Building
An energy audit is a systematic evaluation of a facility’s energy use. In most cases, facility owners and operators use this process to identify any inefficiencies in major systems including HVAC, lighting, controls, and the envelope. The auditing procedure is distinct from commissioning, which verifies any new work, or benchmarking, which compares the performance against recognized standards.
Types of Energy Audits
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is one of the leading professional associations when it comes to standards for sustainable building design. It has established standards for energy audits based on the intensity of the work to be performed:
- Level 1: This is a basic preliminary assessment consisting of a walkthrough conducted by certified professionals. The priority is identifying low-cost and no-cost energy conservation measures and qualitative feedback on potential costs and savings.
- Level 2: Most Common Selection The Level 2 audit expands on the Level 1 audit, providing a more-detailed energy use analysis, energy use breakdown, and diagnostics along with preliminary cost modeling.
- Level 3: This is an investment-grade audit that includes in-depth simulations, measurements, and verification planning.
EEI is fully equipped and capable of providing ASHRAE Level 1, 2, & 3 audits, and our team can customize the scope of our work based on the complexity of the facility’s systems as well as the client’s sustainability objectives.
How EEI Conducts and Documents Each Audit
You can depend on EEI to perform every audit with rigorous processes and the highest degrees of transparency. Here’s a quick rundown of what our typical procedure looks like:
- Data collection: Our team examines your facility’s utilities, equipment inventory, and operating schedules to understand its energy consumption as thoroughly as possible.
- Site assessment and instrumentation: As needed, we will take a look at the site where your facility is located as well as the instrumentation for your systems to ensure it’s working as intended.
- Energy modeling and payback analysis: We can simulate your facility’s energy usage under real-world scenarios to guide building performance optimization.
- Deliverables: We provide you with detailed documentation that includes the audit report, a prioritized ECM list, ROI projections, and recommendations for commissioning or retro-commissioning follow-up if needed.
Benefits for Owners and Facility Managers
Conducting energy audits through EEI provides owners and facility managers with real, measurable benefits including:
- Reduced operational and utility costs
- Improved comfort and equipment reliability
- Informed capital planning and sustainability compliance for LEED and WELL
- Baselines for decarbonization and net-zero strategies
Building a Complete Performance Strategy
Our energy audit services dovetail into our other offerings to help clients create a comprehensive strategy for improving their facilities’ performance and sustainability. For example, the audit results can be used to guide any commissioning or retro-commissioning capabilities we can provide. The benchmarking data created can be fed into audits to provide trend validation, as well. No matter what, clients can manage the implementation and track progress through our BalanceCx platform. The integration with commissioning and benchmarking makes us a complete resource.
Start Optimizing Energy Performance Today
As an independent third-party consultant, you can count on EEI to provide unbiased analysis, data-driven processes, and measurable ROI for your facility. To learn more about what we can do for you, get in touch with us today.