Ramapo College Institute of Environmental Studies (IES): Smart Energy Audits
Smart Energy Audits - Overview
In 2007, Ramapo College received a grant from the BPU to undertake several projects that would advance energy efficiency and renewable energy in New Jersey. Ramapo College proposed three projects to accomplish this goal:
- Offering a conference, the Green Meets Green Expo, to educate the public and regional decision-makers about the need for regional sustainability and the many implementable options that exist to advance regional sustainability.
- Offering further education and outreach about LEED-EB, a guide to energy-efficient and sustainable building renovations and operations, to New Jersey building managers, focusing in particular on higher-education institutions.
- Smart Energy Audits: Offering energy audits and energy education and outreach to managers of small to mid-sized nonresidential buildings about low-cost and cost-effective opportunities for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Smart Energy Audits sought to draw upon Ramapo resources to address an underserved segment of New Jersey buildings. Companies and programs exist that address and target the needs of New Jersey's residential buildings. For large buildings, energy service companies exist that provide sophisticated building analysis, and that will even be paid for energy improvements from a percentage of realized energy savings, thus requiring no money down from the commercial building operator. Smaller commercial buildings, however, seemed to be serviced by neither class of energy company. While small, they still often used HVAC equipment that was unfamiliar to energy professionals familiar with residential buildings. And they could not offer the potential budget of larger commercial buildings, pushing them "off the radar" of the larger energy service companies--with larger buildings comes a larger scale of enterprise and more funds for the energy service company.
Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of the building portfolio in new Jersey can be characterized as small to mid-sized nonresidential. Much of this stock was built in the 1940's to the 1970's, in a time when energy was cheap and no special attention need be paid to energy efficiency. Thus, while factors exist to make this market underserved, it still offered great potential for improved energy efficiency and deployment of renewable energy. This project sought to take some steps to counter-act this market neglect and to engage small to mid-sized nonresidential buildings in undertaking energy improvements in their buildings.
Dr, William Makofske led the project team. Dr. Makofske is professor emeritus at Ramapo College, with decades-long expertise in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and teaching. Two outstanding students, Nicholas DeCristofaro and Danielle Ersalesi, served as project assistants. Carmela Federico, former Ramapo College Sharp Sustainability Education Center Coordinator, provided coordination and communication. Choose Green Energy, an ESCO (energy service company), provided technical services and photovoltaic analyses.
The project provided detailed energy audits of a library, a house of worship, and a law office (choose the "Demonstration Audits" link at left to see further details). Results of these audits were presented to the operators of other small to mid-sized nonresidential buildings: a library, a house of worship complex of buildings, and a historical society. The audits and their recommendations were also presented to a target audience of 28 as a conference session during Ramapo's Green Meets Green Expo.
The project found substantial potential for low-cost and cost-effective improvements in energy efficiency and renewable energy in small to mid-size residential buildings in New Jersey. We hope this project's website provides you with helpful information, and convinces you to take some of the many easy steps available to improve your building's energy use. We ask you to spread the word, and to do what you can to engage small to midsize nonresidential building operators in exploring the many options they will find to improve their building's energy performance and reduce their energy bills. The price of fuel oil, natural gas, and electricity seem poised to rise and rise for the foreseeable future; every penny saved from energy expenditures is profit, or more money available to accomplish a non-profit's mission.
