The Energy Audit 171- Operating Hours: Operating hours for the facility should also be
obtained. Is there only a single shift? Are there two shifts? Three?
Knowing the operating hours in advance allows some determina-
tion as to whether some loads could be shifted to off-peak times.
Adding a second shift can often be cost effective from an energy
cost view, since the demand charge can then be spread over a
greater amount of kWh. - Equipment List: Finally, the auditor should get an equipment
list for the facility and review it before conducting the audit. All
large pieces of energy-consuming equipment such as heaters, air
conditioners, water heaters, and specific process-related equipment
should be identified. This list, together with data on operational
uses of the equipment, allows a good understanding of the major
energy-consuming tasks or equipment at the facility. As a general
rule, the largest energy and cost activities should be examined first
to see what savings could be achieved. The greatest effort should
be devoted to the ECOs that show the greatest savings, and the
least effort to those with the smallest savings potential.
The equipment found at an audit location will depend greatly
on the type of facility involved. Residential audits for single-family
dwellings generally involve smaller-sized lighting, heating, air con-
ditioning, and refrigeration systems. Commercial operations such as
grocery stores, office buildings and shopping centers usually have
equipment similar to residences but much larger in size and in energy
use. However, large residential structures such as apartment buildings
have heating, air conditioning and lighting that is very similar to many
commercial facilities. Business operations is the area where commercial
audits begin to involve equipment substantially different from that
found in residences.
Industrial auditors encounter the most complex equipment. Com-
mercial-scale lighting, heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration, as
well as office business equipment, is generally used at most industrial
facilities. The major difference is in the highly specialized equipment
used for the industrial production processes. This can include equip-
ment for chemical mixing and blending, metal plating and treatment,
welding, plastic injection molding, paper making and printing, metal
refining, electronic assembly, and making glass, for example.