I feel a bit like I am a hawker at the State Fair – "come get your free energy consultation…" But this is a great opportunity to crow about and everyone that owns a business or works for a business needs to know (think of how good you can look to your employer if you are the one to suggest it).
Jill Curran is the program manager of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce program, Energy Smart. Jill told me that their aim is to cut energy costs for businesses in Minnesota and have already helped 800 businesses do so since October.
Best of all, the help is FREE. Yes, I said "free", there is no "fee".
So what's the hitch? What's the agenda? What are they going to try to sell me? That's the great news. They are funded by utilities to cut power demand through the Conservation Improvement Program (CIP). I know it sounds counter intuitive (utilities are in the business of selling electricity, right?), but it is a legit deal. Energy Smart is not trying to sell anything. Their mission is to help businesses save money through energy efficiency. And to this end, they will provide education, motivation and resources rather than product and pressure.
Here's how it works: the staff at Energy Smart will set an appointment with you and walk through your workplace – home office, factory, retail or office building -- looking for the low hanging fruit of wasted energy. No business is too small or too large for an consultant. As long as it is somewhere in Minnesota they will help with no shame and no blame.
Even though they are not certified energy auditors, they will come up with a list of easy do-ables for you. Most often the audits find simple inexpensive fixes like exit lights that can be retrofitted from incandescent to LED's saving around $45/light/year. They also find computers that need power management – screen savers during the day and power strips that are turned off at night to save as much as $100/computer/year. Occupancy sensors for bathrooms and conference rooms are another common recommendation because they are inexpensive to install and have a quick payback with an average 50% savings.
If it looks like there may be big savings in a bigger project like a lighting system retrofit or heating and cooling recommissioning, they will recommend a few hundred dollar audit be done by a certified auditor through your local electric utility. If big bucks need to be spent, they can also point businesses in the direction of rebate programs that can help take away some of the sting of up front cost.
If you are in a business that has some extra cash sitting around, energy efficiency improvements will give you one of the best returns that you can find today. And if you don't have any bucks sitting around this program is a perfect way to realize some smaller inexpensive to implement savings.
All you need to do is call Jill at 651-292-4653 or email her jcurran@mnchamber.com to request an audit. Or for more information go to the Energy Smart website.