Building Management Hawaii February/March - (Page 16)
Top 3 Energy Incentives
Minimize your operating budget variances with energy efficiency measures.
By Michael Chang
Energy
T
here are many reasons to decrease
electricity consumption beyond
reducing the state’s dependence on
imported oil. An often-overlooked
reason is that lower usage minimizes
monthly operating budget variances.
If you have not already performed
the following three energy efficiency
and conservation measures, then
you are at the mercy of your
budget variances being driven by
unpredictable and uncontrollable
world energy price changes:
can place AOAOs and other buildings
in various levels of financial hardship.
This can range from realignments
of monthly expenditures to match
cash flows to full-blown budget fire
drills as a result of rapid and frequent
electricity cost fluctuations. In these
instances, AOAOs may have to resort
to balancing budgets by taking
measures such as:
1) Submetering – drives behavior and
fairness to all
• ipping into reserves
d
2) omestic water pump retrofit –
D
often overlooked
• eferring discretionary services
d
such as grounds and equipment
maintenance
• eviewing special assessments to
r
make up the difference
3) ighting retrofit – always your
L
first action! To encourage adoption,
Hawaii Energy, the ratepayerfunded conservation and efficiency
program, offers substantial
financial incentives for these
measures and more.
Craigside, AOAO
Just months after installation,
Craigside in Nuuanu is already
achieving significant energy
reduction. In March 2012, submetering
was installed for 242 units. From
March to September, actual usage
was down from its predicted usage
by about 20 percent (approximately
1,000 kWh reduction per day, which is
equal to about $9,120 in electricity cost
savings per month, based on 30 cents
per kWh and adjusted for weatherrelated changes).
Installing a submetering system
can greatly minimize these scenarios.
Moreover, in 2012, the legislature
adopted and the governor signed
into law Act 18, which enables boards
to authorize the installation of
submetering, provided that AOAOs
pay for the installation cost.
Top 3 Energy Incentives
CASE STUDY
Available Incentive
1) Electrical Submetering
Condominiums and commercial
buildings with electrical “master
meters” can minimize operating
costs by submetering common areas,
owners’ units and mixed-use vendors,
as well as parking structures and
retail spaces.
A master meter consists of a single
utility meter to monitor the electrical
service to the entire building. Master
meters are problematic since payment
for electricity is a fixed amount based
on percentage ownership within the
property instead of correlating to a
unit’s electricity usage. It was often
selected and installed for two reasons:
• owest initial construction costs
l
• owest “bulk rate” dollars per
l
kilowatt hours (kWh) operating
costs over the life of the building
The removal of personal
responsibility driven by master meters
16
February–March 2013
BMH
Hawaii Energy offers a substantial
incentive of $150 per unit (up to 50
percent of the total project cost) for
submeters used for billing. The cost of
submetering ranges from $350 to $550
per unit, with monthly billing service
fees from $1.50 to $5 per bill.
Submetering not only fairly allocates
the cost of electricity; it encourages
residents in each unit to conserve
energy. Depending on the property and
the occupants’ willingness to change
their behavior, electricity reduction can
range from 10 to 25 percent.
As with any purchase and
installation, Hawaii Energy strongly
recommends that associations do
their due diligence to find a qualified
contractor. Over the last 18 months,
eight properties have installed
submetering. Fifteen more properties
are underway or will start soon.
Contact Hawaii Energy for
recommended best practices to
replicate successful projects.
2) omestic Water Pump
D
Retrofit
Does electricity come to mind
when you turn on the faucet in a
high-rise building? Probably not, since
water and electricity do not normally
mix. What many residents don’t
realize, however, is that it takes a lot of
electricity to pump up the water they
use every day.
Retrofit domestic water pumps
(also known as “booster pumps”)
are a great hidden source of energy
savings. The pumps take potable city
water from the street and pump it up
to high-rise buildings (generally, those
that are six floors or higher) or across
campuses of buildings.
New pump packages use high
efficiency motors, pumps, variable
frequency drives (VFDs) and controls
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Management Hawaii February/March
Top 3 Energy Incentives
On The Grid
Solar: Not A Singular Solution
Saving Money & Art
Payback Projects
Top 10: Turn Energy Into Value
AC: Light-Zapping Clean
Does Your HVAC Talk BACnet?
Editorial: Industry Insights
Association Updates & Industry News
Ask An Expert: No One Likes To Sag
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