Going Green Can Save You Massive Amounts Of Cash!
The Question: “How can we afford to “Go Green?” The Answer: “You can’t afford not to!”
As companies and institutions everywhere are asking, “How can we afford to go green?” Others have learned that the real question should be, “How can we afford not to?” Between the savings from energy efficiency, government incentives, rebates and well structured financing and lease options, energy projects can be excellent investments rather than daunting expenses.
By taking a carefully planned “whole facility” approach, companies can target both the “low-hanging fruit” (such as lighting upgrades and maintenance solutions) and a combination of other equally significant and cost effective solutions (such as available technologies to improve the efficiency of HVAC, refrigeration, equipment loads, etc) to achieve substantial returns. The efficiency gained across multiple load categories will amass to very significant reductions in overall energy consumption and costs. Often, these savings can help to fund more expensive, longer term solutions. Experts all agree that increasing energy efficiency is the most important and financially prudent step any business can take in “going green”. By reducing demand and consumption first, the scope and cost of secondary phases (such as adding renewable energy sources) can be better controlled.
Many government and utility programs have been designed to reward companies following just such an approach. For example, New Jersey’s Pay for Performance program returns up to 100% of the money spent for design and 50% of the money spent for implementation which significantly reduces payback time and increases R.O.I.
Furthermore, equipment lease or rental agreements can be used to eliminate out of pocket and capital expenditure costs and immediately enrich cash flow. Structured properly, these agreements cover the entire project cost and have such low monthly costs that they are off-set by the savings. In other words, the monthly energy savings outpace the monthly lease payments creating additional, immediate, unexpected cash flow and profit for the facility.
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Supermarket energy
Green Energy Isn’t Always What It Seems
Buyer Beware – Using Power Factor Correction and Transient Voltage Surge Suppression to Reduce Energy Costs.
Today’s energy conscious climate has motivated many to do what they can to become more efficient and conserve energy and money. Unfortunately this same climate has prompted others to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers’ wishes to save energy and reduce expenses.
Companies that tout power factor improvement (kVAR correction) and transient voltage suppression are a good example of this bad trend. Lately we are seeing more and more of these companies cropping up and feel it is time to set the record straight.
First, transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) plays a valuable role in improving power quality to protect sensitive equipment inside a facility. However, TVSS does not save energy. TVSS’s are only active a tiny fraction of a second to protect against voltage surges which only last for less than a millisecond. To actually reduce energy consumption the TVSS would need to actually cut power consumption for an extended period of time which is not what they are designed to do. Again, TVSS is important to protect sensitive electrical equipment but buyers should avoid vendors promising, or even guaranteeing, that they will reduce energy consumption.
Now what about vendors who claim that improving power factor will save 15% or 20% or 30% of energy consumption and corresponding cost? This one is a little trickier.
For residential applications, power factor does nothing to save energy because the typical home already has an average power factor of about 0.97 which is almost the perfect power factor of 1 or unity. In addition, the device (called a capacitor) is placed at the main circuit breaker. According to IEEE 5.5.3.3 capacitors must be situated at or near the respective inductive loads to reduce power system losses by reducing heat and distribution losses known as I2R losses.
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Technology
EPAct 2005 Tax Deductions – Time Is Running Out
Many businesses have implemented energy efficiency measures in their facilities over the past several years to help decrease operating expenses and aid the local and global environment. What a lot of these companies do not know is that sizeable federal tax deductions are available to them and also that time may be running out.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) provides generous, immediate tax deductions to businesses for making energy efficiency improvements to their buildings. The federal tax incentives center mainly on efficiency improvements to lighting, HVAC and building envelopes and can be as large as $1.80 per square foot.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 extended Section 179D and EPAct 2005 so the act will not expire until December 31, 2013. However, that does not mean that time may not be running out for some companies.
For businesses that implemented energy efficiency projects in 2006 it is probable they filed their tax returns before April 15, 2007. If they were unaware of the deductions at that time, they are now at risk of losing those tax deductions forever since the IRS only allows a three year period to amend tax returns.
That means if you have not yet amended your 2006 tax return you have only a few months left to do so!
As an electrical contractor working with commercial and industrial customers you certainly have been thinking about ways to increase your sales and likely how to better utilize your current book of business to that end. You have also most likely been approached by your current customers asking what they can do to reduce their energy costs.
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Supermarket energy
