Auditing for Energy Savings: Do We Really Need Star Wars Technology And the Third Decimal Place?

Abstract

Over the pa st twenty years I have had the opportun ity to re view a
number of comm ercial and indu strial audit s. Generally, the y have b een
technically sound, but I have been perplexed at the extremes that app ear
in these rep ort s. Many seem to fall into one of two categories; sufficiently
vague or too detailed. Also, the very detailed rep orts hav e a tendency to
rely on Star Wars technology for a major portion of their sa vings.
On one hand a rep ort may be so vague that the varia tion in the
pro jected sa ving s ma y be plus or minu s 100%. "If this recomm end ed
measure is impl ement ed th e annual sa v i ngs sho u ld be b etw een
$1,000,000 to $2,000,000." Or, at the oth er extrem e, the rep ort may try to
be too precise and qu ote ene rgy savings with decimals; "You will save
129,227.5 kWh annually with the application of enthalpy cont rols." In
both situations it appea rs that some thing is mis sing, the appli cati on of
good solid technolo gy sp rinkled with c omm on sense.