1) Savings
Savings is measured by forecasting projected energy, electricity and water savings and comparing them to your building’s baseline energy and water usage.
The baseline represents your building’s historical energy and water data for specific “base year”, prior to any improvements you make with a CPACE financing.
The process for calculating your baseline is beyond the scope of this article…
However, the Department of Energy offers a step by step process for setting a baseline for your building and gathering data such as:
- Electricity
- Natural gas
- Oil
- Hot water
- Chilled water
- Steam
- Etc.
And you can use the free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software to do this, or hire a consultant to do it for you.
More general information on the potential payback from energy, electricity and water efficiency and the cost of commercial renewable energy investments can be found in these articles:
Once you have your baseline, you will be able to calculate the projected savings you would receive from future energy and water efficiency measures.
To calculate the cost and performance of the efficiency measures you will work with a local contractor who specialize in green building retrofits as described above.