Energy Saving News
Energy Efficiency can save Canadian Businesses $100,000s
SAVING hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational costs through energy conservation and efficiency is not that difficult, so heard an audience of business leaders in the Canadian City of Guelph, at the Guelph Chamber of Commerce Environmental Sustainability Forum this week.
They discovered it can be a simple to save big, just by identifying where their business gulps energy and then remedying the waste, and in Canada, like many nations, there is even a government program to help with the retrofitting costs.
Dan Lawson of Blount Canada Ltd said that their plant started its energy conservation measures with the modest goal to save $150,000 per annum. They achieved the target in a very short time through careful analysis of the baseline energy use.
Lawson revealed that amongst other measures they upgraded their lighting system and checked out equipment and found plant running at inconsistent levels, wasting a lot of energy. Fixing the energy leaks and running at consistently lower levels brought substantial energy reductions.
Tweaking the interior temperature by just a few degrees up in the summer and a few degrees down in the winter also reduced energy costs.
Another Guelph business, Hammond Manufacturing, also carried out energy efficiency actions.
Hammond’s Cliff Van Der Veen revealed that it is in the best interest of all companies to save money wherever they can and that energy efficiency is a good place to find savings.
Switching out inefficient lighting produced dramatic results, as well as improving lighting conditions, with this simple change reducing electricity usage from 378,000 kWh during the first five months of 2009, to 276,000 kWh for the rest of the year.
Giorgio Boccalon, of utility company Guelph Hydro, addressed the audience, stating that the goal of the Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program, which can cover 40 per cent of retrofits, is designed to help companies find ways to “turn stuff off permanently,” whether through installing more efficient lighting, motors or air conditioning systems. In most facilities savings can be as high as 30-40 per cent.
Picture by Memotions
Friday 2nd July 2010
