Georgia Power - A Southern Company

An energy audit helps you understand how your facility uses various forms of energy — including electricity, gas, and other utilities — and helps you identify waste or inefficiency. And by identifying on-peak and off-peak periods, you can use information from audits to take advantage of various rate structures.

Simultaneous heating and cooling in the same space wastes energy and is easily preventable. You can discover this problem by investigating unusually high utility bills and by performing energy audits.

Energy-saving T8s make sense in larger, occupied spaces, but their output is unnecessary in closets and hallways. Use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to save money and energy. Also consider installing dimmers and/or timers that would reduce hallway light levels by up to 30 percent during daylight hours.

For centrifugal chillers, each degree F you raise the chilled water supply (CHWS) temperature above 42°F, chiller efficiency increases by 1 percent. Even in hot, humid climates, you can increase CHWS temperature and still maintain building comfort.

Raising the efficiency of your hot-water system will save you money in energy costs. You can do so by employing several strategies: Insulate the storage tank, supply piping, and recirculation piping; observe water temperature guidelines; encourage employees, tenants, or other occupants to conserve. A thorough analysis of the building’s hot water demand pattern may also indicate that placing multiple water heaters close to usage points is more economical than using one central tank.

Most systems are set to 72-75 degrees F and 50 percent relative humidity. By raising the thermostat to 78 degrees F and 55 percent relative humidity, you can reduce the energy required for cooling by roughly 13 percent.