The Right Strategy Reduces Costs and Carbon Emissions
Are you looking for energy-saving building solutions to address rising costs and a growing trend towards decarbonization? With inflation and fuel prices rising steeply, energy conservation is top of mind for building owners and managers looking to reduce their operational expenditures. Many properties are also looking to reduce carbon emissions to avoid imminent penalties or take advantage of federal and local municipality incentives – including grants, on-bill financing, and no-interest loans to offset the costs of the upgrades.
Whether your property is in Houston, NYC or anywhere in the US, Vanguard Building Solutions has many recommendations for cutting energy use across your portfolio. These energy conservation measures will deliver an immediate return on your investment, whether it’s something as simple as upgrading HVAC filters to implementing full-building electrification.
SEE MORE: 3 Ways Electrification Can Improve Your Building
Regularly Replace Filters to Conserve Energy
The good news is that some energy-saving solutions are easy to implement and can provide immediate results for your bottom line. For example, changing air filters on a regular basis is a simple way to maximize energy efficiency.
Ensure you’re using high quality, industrial grade air filters in your building, and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations on how often to replace them. Clogged filters reduce airflow, negatively impact indoor air quality, and make it challenging to heat and cool your space. Ultimately, this can lead to significant reductions in energy efficiency, equipment longevity and the overall quality of life for building tenants.
Convert to LED for Greater Lighting Efficiency
Replacing fluorescent, incandescent and halogen bulbs with LED fixtures can drastically reduce your electricity usage and operational costs. LED bulbs offer the same or better illumination as conventional bulbs while using 90% less energy. In addition, LED bulbs require less maintenance, given their average life span of 30 years, and produce less heat, thereby reducing your cooling requirements during warmer months. It’s also worth noting that the US Department of Energy recently implemented a rule, to phase out the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2023, to encourage the use of more energy-efficient light bulbs.
LED upgrades will drive immediate energy savings and offer aggressive returns on investment. Vanguard Building Solutions can conduct a thorough lighting analysis of your building – calculating your current usage, designing a system that meets your lighting needs, and identifying all available financial incentives to help offset the costs of the project. Traditionally, LED lighting upgrades pay for themselves over a short period of time.
Upgrade Old Systems Through Electrification
Building electrification is the process of replacing existing natural gas and fuel-based HVAC and domestic hot water systems with electric, heat pump or geothermal options. Electrification of old, end-of-life base building systems will reduce your overall energy spend, significantly cut your carbon emissions, and future-proof your building’s infrastructure. You can explore some examples of electrification and its benefits here.
Many states and municipalities are updating building codes, to requiring that all new construction and most large retrofit projects include the electrification of base energy systems. As a result, programs such as the NYC Accelerator have been created – offering personalized guidance to make cost-saving, energy efficiency upgrades and reduce carbon emissions in New York City. As a member of the NYC Accelerator program, Vanguard’s energy engineers will work with your facilities team, to assess the available opportunities to electrify your property.
Financing Your Energy Saving Solutions
While energy efficiency upgrade projects provide attractive ROI for buildings, there are times when additional capital may be required to bring a project to fruition. To that end, Vanguard Building Solutions offers a wide range of flexible funding models to help alleviate these capital constraints. These funding models include Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC), Energy Service Agreements (ESA), and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA). The key is to determine which funding option best fits your financing needs.
Vanguard Building Solutions provides design-build, turnkey energy solutions. We not only identify the best energy-saving options for your building – we provide full design, implementation, financing, and on-going maintenance services as part of our project delivery. To set up a consultation with our team of experts, please give us a call or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.