| Client: | Larry Blumberg and Associates |
| Project Name: | FBI Building |
| Location: | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Building Details: | 14,857 sq. ft. LEED Silver Certified Commercial Office Building |
| EnergyWise Products & Services: |
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Larry Blumberg & Associates operates over 16 government office buildings, 68 hotels, and 2 restaurants across the U.S. This commercial building was built to the United States Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Silver Certification standards for the intended use by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Field Office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Property Manager Larry Johnston of Blumberg & Associates describes the problem, “I contacted Energy Wise because our electric bills were double what they were projected to be based on the energy model incorporated by our original design and construction team and we believed an extensive commercial building energy audit and energy monitoring were necessary.”
Challenges
The building is managed and operational costs are paid by Larry Blumberg & Associates. The building was LEED certified and had a full energy model performed for LEED credit by a 3rd party.
Building was modeled to consume 11,000 kWh/month (which is approximately 27% less than the average commercial building built in 2012). The actual energy consumption (during the three month period of May, June and July of 2012) averaged 50,240 kWh/month EnergyWise was called upon to do a thorough commercial energy audits, help pinpoint the problem, and find a solution.
The property manager expected total monthly electrical bills to hover around $1,500 per month and was faced with bills exceeding $4,000 per month after opening the facility.
Commercial Energy Audit Results
- Consumption data was taken from each electrical panel using data loggers in order to determine where the main draws of electricity were coming from.
- After a 30 day period of data was collected, it was determined that two panels containing several single-room air conditioning units were drawing large amounts of electricity.
- With the information collected by the EnergyWise Solutions team, the building’s management was able to contact the air conditioning contractor to further investigate the problem.
Mr. Johnston stated, “Jennifer and Scott at EnergyWise conducted their commercial energy audit and through the use of data loggers determined the high usage was coming from two electrical panels. The two electrical panels only had HVAC units on them so based on the information provided by Energy Wise we were able to go back to the outdoor LED lighting contractor that installed the systems and prove to them something was wrong. After some adjustments to the systems, our energy usage was cut in half to the levels the energy modeling was projecting. Thanks Jennifer and Scott!”
This proves the value of an extensive commercial energy audit and monitoring by trained and certified professional energy auditors like Jennifer Waddick at EnergyWise when electrical consumption is excessive. Many times problems can be uncovered, saving wasted energy and hundreds, or as it was in this case, thousands of dollars each month.
