Energy Benchmarking
You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure
This tagline used by the City of St. Louis and the Missouri Gateway Chapter of the UBC underscores the importance of benchmarking. With energy costs increasing and government agencies imposing deadlines for improvement, it’s more important than ever to focus on saving energy.
Why Engage in Benchmarking
Simply put, saving energy saves you a lot of money. Oftentimes a lot of money.
The other good news is that saving on energy often does not require huge investments in all new equipment and systems. Tuning existing systems, upgrading one's building controls and taking advantage of rebates will often make the ROI on any investment very quick.
Energy Benchmarking allows you to:
- Identify specific areas in need of improvement
- Show where your building’s energy usage ranks among others
- Lowers total operating costs
- Receive recognition and rebates if improvements are implemented
- Be confident in project decisions
How It Works
The benchmarking process starts with tracking your building’s energy use - both current and historical. This information is entered into software along with the size, vintage, usage characteristics and location of your building. that access to large-scale statistical data of buildings that are of similar size, vintage, used in the same way and located in similar climates.
The software then uses performance standards and large-scale statistical data on energy usage to rank your building’s performance. From this information, our GEMS team can get a clearer view of your building's efficiency and estimate the potential for improvement.
In Summary
Energy Benchmarking is an essential tool for making smart, informed decisions before moving forward with projects that will save energy...and money. The process verifies whether your systems are running at their peak performance and highlights areas for improvement.
