I often hear that "Energy audit costs money, but saves no energy". This is true and not true at the same time. Here is why: Any experienced plant manager knows that their plant wastes utilities. No shame in this. Every plant wastes energy. Few plant managers know where exactly this waste occurs and even [...]
We often hear that massive carbon emissions reduction is either technically impossible or financially unfeasible. However, through a feasibility-level analysis of eight commercial and industrial buildings, I arrived at a conclusion that surprised even me. Massive net carbon emissions reduction is not a technological issue, nor is it a financing problem. It is a [...]
We have completed another industrial refrigeration retrofit and optimization project at Erb Transportation warehouse in Baden, Ontario. Annual energy savings for the whole refrigeration plant are estimated at 41%. This time GreenQ worked under project management of Arcadian Projects and in cooperation with Davis Energy. Our contribution to the project was a complex optimisation [...]
A conventional wisdom suggests that only action creates results. I tend to agree, except that is must be a correct action. How do you what energy project is the right one? How to choose between projects when each vendor claims attractive savings? I do not have a crystal ball either, but I [...]
My esteemed UK colleague Vilnis Vesma has written a series of smart articles that explains the often hidden value of measuring, monitoring and targeting of energy consumption. For the fun of it he arranged the series in alphabetic order. These short posts are written in plain English and contain tons of common sense based [...]
An industrial client asked me what meters to buy. My honest professional advice: do not buy any, because whatever meters you buy you will be disappointed later. Here is why. I am a strong proponent of measuring energy use. No sensible energy project can be implemented without measuring. Simplifying William Thomson – “to measure [...]
Smart meters can do much more than provide a stream of measurements. But here is a catch: operators must know how they work. Here is a story to illustrate. Client installed a smart gas meter for a commercial kitchen. One year later gas supply is blocked. Meter blocked gas supply, it must be at [...]
Our South African colleague Craig van Wyk from VWG Consulting expressed a consideration very much worth republishing: if savings per unit are achieved and sustained in high-volume manufacturing, they keep mounting every hour of every day. Here is Craig's message: During my years in management in the high-volume manufacturing environment, prior to becoming a [...]
Our UK colleague Vilnis Vesma produced a funny article on how to waste energy. I republish it with his permission. Please note invitation to training at the end. This article is based on something Vilnis Vesma produced for a group of energy champions that he had been training. It was intended as a [...]
A mere 1 month after an Energy Management Information System (EMIS) project was postponed ‘due to other priorities’ our client’s plant has stopped for 3 days. About $500,000 lost in pre-holidays food product sales. Not to count costs of avoidable urgent repairs and value of lost trust from clients. Why did plant stop? Boiler [...]
