Reducing Commercial Utility Costs Through HVAC Retrofitting

One of the biggest issues with making a commercial building energy efficient is knowing where to start. Ideally, an older building would receive a top to bottom makeover from an energy efficiency company. But energy efficient design can be inexpensive, which makes targeting a building's biggest problem area key to generating cost savings that will help pay for other projects. For many commercial buildings, that problem area is their HVAC system. Unlike interior lighting, windows and other aspects of energy efficient design, an HVAC system is out of sight, and therefore usually out of mind. But hidden away in air ducts and utility rooms could be the greatest source of a building's inefficiency, which translates into its greatest source of commercial utility costs.

In many cases, an HVAC system isn't inefficient due to its engineering, but because its parts are "oversized", and use more electricity than necessary to produce the optimal effect. According to research by energy efficiency providers, the most commonly oversized element in traditional HVAC systems is an air distribution fan, with 60 percent of U.S. commercial buildings having distribution fans that are needlessly large and waste up to 60 percent of the power that they consume. Considering that air distribution fans account for roughly 7 percent of a building's total electrical usage, the costs savings that come with downsizing distribution fans can be significant, with studies showing that downsizing distribution fans can reduce the electrical consumption of an air handling subsystem by almost half.

A second element of traditional HVAC systems that is commonly oversized is a chiller. As with oversized distribution fans, oversized chillers use more energy than necessary without creating a more optimal effect. However, although downsizing a chiller will reduce energy consumption, the significant cost of chillers should cause building owners to analyze whether it makes more sense to downsize a chiller or replace the HVAC unit in which it is housed. When HVAC systems are old and nearing the end of their useful lifespan, the latter option is usually recommended after performing a long-term cost analysis.

A third element of traditional HVAC systems that drives up energy costs is a boiler. Unlike air distribution fans and chillers, a boiler's inefficiency doesn't result from its being oversized, but from its poor combustion efficiency. Research shows that traditional gas and oil boilers operate at no higher than 70 percent combustion efficiency, and that traditional electric boilers operate at no higher than 75 percent efficiency. In such situations, the optimal solution is to replace a boiler with an energy efficient model that operates at up to 90 percent efficiency. Making your building's boiler system, chiller system and air distribution system energy efficient can require a significant investment. But when you learn how much you can save in commercial utility costs, it could be an investment that you can't afford to miss.