The average electrical bill for commercial businesses in the United States is $647. Location, size of your facility, and type of business can affect electrical costs. There are several things your business can do to reduce costs through mechanical system optimization.
If you are building or renovating a commercial building, office, or warehouse, it is an excellent opportunity to optimize your mechanical system for efficiency. We have several tips for reducing costs and maximizing the performance of your mechanical system.
Benefits of Mechanical System Optimization
By optimizing your mechanical system, your business will experience:
- Energy Efficiency Through Customizable Control: You’ll lower your energy bill’s cost by managing and controlling energy usage based on business needs while avoiding energy waste during non-business hours.
- Low Maintenance Costs: By automating and utilizing a central management system, you’ll be able to manage, predict, and reduce downtime from malfunctioning equipment or power outages. This will reduce costs and improve productivity.
- Reduced Travel Through Centralized Management: A central system allows you to manage multiple facilities from a centralized location, which reduces travel between buildings to monitor and assess systems.
- Building System Longevity: An automated mechanical system can extend the life of your equipment by managing loads and detecting malfunctions before they become a problem.
- Improve Productivity and Building Comfort: When systems are operating efficiently, business productivity will increase, and the system will provide a comfortable environment to work inside.
Related Link: Measuring Electrical Consumption in Building Automation Systems
The Best Tips for Optimizing Your Building’s Mechanical System
If you run an SME or Large Enterprise, optimizing your building’s mechanical system is essential for maintaining consistent power for business operations. Here are some tips for mechanical system optimization.
Utilize a Centralized Network to Monitor and Manage Your MEP systems
By installing hardware and software to create a centralized Building Automation System (BAS), you can automate and manage your mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems from one centralized dashboard. The network can regulate and increase the performance of:
- Switchboards
- Panelboards
- Fans
- Pumps
- Transformers
- Chillers
- Boilers
- Lighting systems
- Security
- Emergency systems
You’ll want to upgrade these systems and equipment as IoT, which integrates into the system to provide real-time data and performance. This centralized system will act as a command center for the building, systems, and IoT, where you can control and adjust for better performance.
Optimize Your Building’s Lighting Power Energy Consumption
By evaluating the needs of your business and its peak energy consumption, you can implement:
- Building shading systems
- Automated lighting controls and schedules
- LED lighting
- Room lighting sensors
Do you want to increase the energy efficiency of your HVAC and mechanical support systems? Learn more about Edison’s Mechanical System Optimization solutions.
Related Link: The Best Office Lighting to Improve Productivity
Creating a Strategy for Partial Load Conditions
A mechanical system is designed to meet 99% of the annual weather conditions in your location. This includes handling power requirements and installing equipment to handle peak loads. But these peak load power demands only occur a few days each year.
Most of the time, your power consumption will be in partial load conditions. There are several things you can do to optimize mechanical system under partial load conditions:
- Series temperature sensors
- Flow measuring stations
- Pressure sensors
- Flowmeters
- Control valves
- Variable frequency drives
- Electronically commutated motors for pumps and fans
Request an Energy Audit from the Utility Company
Most utility companies will conduct a free energy audit to evaluate your business’ power consumption. This is an excellent tool to evaluate and determine strategies for reducing your business’s energy costs and impact on the environment.
Leverage Renewable Energy Technology to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
You may want to install alternative energy technology like solar and wind power to reduce your electricity consumption. Some of these technologies also provide discounts, incentives, and tax credits for installing the technology.
Not only will these renewable energy technologies reduce the cost of your energy bill, but they also decrease your carbon footprint, making your business an environmentally conscious entity.
Program Electrical Devices to Sleep When Not in Use
By connecting your electrical devices to a central system, you can turn off devices that are not regularly used or turn off the devices at the end of the workday. Also, you’ll want to ensure that computers, printers, and monitors are set to sleep mode when not in use, which will significantly reduce their energy consumption.
Automate HVAC Systems to Reduce Energy Consumption
Using Direct Digital Controls (DDC) systems or AI-enabled building management software can dramatically reduce energy costs and optimize the mechanical system’s performance. A DDC system allows you to automate and customize the building’s heating and cooling systems based on need.
An artificial intelligence (AI) building management software integrates with your existing DDC systems. The AI software dynamically analyzes current conditions and makes adjustments in real-time to your HVAC systems to maximize efficiency and reduce costs.
Prepare For Emergency Power
One in four businesses experiences a power outage once a month. These outages can disrupt business and can be costly. By preparing an adequate backup power system, you’ll reduce disruptions, loss of business, and expensive energy bills. You’ll need to assess the current emergency system and determine if additional backup systems are needed.
You’ll want to install a power management system that integrates the electrical and mechanical systems to organize and distribute the generator’s load. The power management system can control the number of generators running and optimize the usage to match the needed load, preventing overload conditions.
By Implementing These Tips, You’ll Increase Your Building’s Mechanical System Performance
While some of these upgrades and management systems may require an initial investment, the upgrades will increase performance with long-term cost savings and power efficiency that can adjust to your business’s needs.
Edison is a leading provider of automated electrical solutions for commercial properties. Edison’s experienced personnel can customize a solution to meet any business requirements. Specializing in mechanical system optimization and installing automation systems, Edison offers cost savings, efficiency, and insight into your building’s operations.
Are you interested in optimizing and automating your mechanical system? Contact Edison for a free consultation to improve your electrical services.
Related Link: Why Businesses Must Get Electrical Right
