SAVING THE DOLLAR COSTS OF ENERGY AND

A SIMPLE ENERGY AUDIT OF YOUR CONGREGATIONAL BUILDINGS

by Energy Contractor Bob Kingery of Southern Energy Management in Raleigh

Prepared by NC Interfaith Power & Light of NC Council of Churches and Interfaith Power & Light

Step One: The starting point for reducing energy consumption is monitoring your power bills.

· Electricity is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh).

· Natural gas and propane are measured in therms.

· Because there are other items on the bill such as excise tax and meter reading fees, you can’t judge usage by the dollar total.

· Track your usage for 12 months, four seasons. For two church buildings you may get separate bills.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Elec

Gas

· With electricity and air conditioning, you will see a spike in the summer (ONE HUMP in the middle)

· With gas, you should see the highest use in winter. (A RISE at both ends of the chart.)

· With electric heat pump, you should see lower usage in spring and fall. (UP DOWN UP DOWN UP.)

· Most utilities can provide a graph, usually online.

· If you don’t understand your bill, call the utility company customer service and ask your questions.

· You might also try to learn to read your meter. You will probably have to ask for instructions. The gas company will send a map of how to read their meter.

· Propane is harder to measure. There may not be a gauge on your tank, as the provider may simply come on a regular schedule without measuring amount left in the tank. You can ask for a gauge to be installed and ask for training to read it if the company won’t issue periodic reports.

Step Two: Invest your cost-saving effort and money where it will make the most difference.

1. Determine your biggest outlay. Usually that will be winter heating. Summer cooling is usually next, followed by lights. At a church, hot water usually won’t be significant. Other lower cost items may be kitchens and outdoor lighting.

2. At St. Philips the past year’s gas bills ranged from a low $31 in summer to a high $1295 in winter.

· The $31 in the summer reveals the cost of the kitchen stove and the hot water heater.

· The winter electric bill reveals the cost of lighting.

· If you have a heat pump, to find the cost of lighting, look at the spring and fall usage.

3. Gas pilot lights are not usually big consumers unless they are old or mistuned. You can test usage by looking at the meter during a period when the stove is not in use. If you have two summer appliances using gas (stove and hot water heater, for example), do a 3-week test. Week One, turn off the water heater for the week and read the meter each day, recording the number. On Week Two, run the water heater and turn off the pilot light. On the third week, turn off both and find a gas leak at the gas meter!

4. Heating Degree Days is an additional measure of usage. In this analysis, the temperature is taken into account when looking at a month’s kWh or therm total. The principle: it takes more therms to heat a building on a cold day, more kWh’s to keep a building cool when it’s hot. A milder winter should result in lower usage, and to measure the effectiveness of your energy-saving efforts, you will need to consider that factor. The utility company offers this tool.

Step Three: Cost-and-energy-saving strategies

1. Air leaks are the most common cause of high winter heat bills.

· Study the Stack Effect: Heat always pushes on the ceiling plane. If you stop air going out the top, you keep the heat where you want it. In a typical building, approximately 30% of the heat output is lost through holes in the room’s ceiling, going up to the attic, where it does no good.

· It is more important to close up penetrations than to install thick insulation. Use caulk, foam or mastic as appropriate to seal air leaks around light fixtures and around ducts.

· Massive leaks are common in ductwork. The flex part doesn’t generally leak, Leaks are in the collars or connections to the metal HVAC duct or the connection to the flex line. Cut the straps, find the holes, pull back old broken tape and seal the gaps. This is a dirty job, but the investment pays off, and one work day with two volunteers will take care of your building far into the future.

· The permanent fix is mastic. You will find the mastic-sealed connections still firm and tight after 20 years. It can be bought most inexpensively at an HVAC supply house. There a bucket may be just $15. Buy the right brush while you’re at the store.

· Around pipes and light fixtures, apply foam or caulk. Any long-term caulk is good.

2. Programmable thermostats will likely repay the investment ($200 Honeywell is good) in one season. To keep moisture down, don’t turn it off, just turn it down when not in use. There are models that anticipate how long it will take to bring the temperature up (or down) by the set hour. True or false: “it takes more energy to re-heat or re-cool.” FALSE. It takes more energy to maintain at the higher (lower) temperature than to reduce during unoccupied and night-time hours.

3. If you’re setting the temperature manually for a Sunday service when the sanctuary is not in use in the week, experiment on a week day to learn how long it takes for the building to cool/warm to the desired temperature and go to the church to set it only as far ahead as needed.

4. In our climate, a humidity meter is also useful, at a cost of $80-$90. Observing the humidity, you will know whether you need to raise/lower thermostat setting to maintain proper moisture level.

5. It is good to follow manufacturer’s instructions to redirect ceiling fan blades each season. In winter you want to blow the warm air down from the ceiling into the room. In summer you place the slant to blow it upward.

6. Automatic dishwashers typically use a lot of hot water. Using them may save time, but may not reflect our values. It is more efficient (and may be more social fun) to set up a hand dish washing work line using the 3-bin method:


Hot suds		Hot suds		Warm rinse		Towel dry

Step Four: After you have taken these fundamental steps, you may want to hire experts to do more analysis and recommend equipment.

1. Do the ABC’s yourself. You don’t want to hire an audit contractor to tell you to plug up holes in the ceiling.

2. An energy audit contractor can conduct a blower door test to locate additional points of leakage.

3. If you’re looking at new gas furnace, consider the SEER rating (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) to compare cost of equipment with its expected energy reduction payoff. For any unit, there will a SEER point at which you will not receive the energy savings equal to the cost of the unit. If your contractor dealer can’t predict the likely energy savings in your space for a unit he plans to install, find another dealer.

4. For HVAC units, there is an AFUE efficiency rating.

Step Five: Save even more (pollution, that is) by purchasing safe, clean renewable energy from NC GreenPower. Apply the first $4.00 you save on energy bills to register in the program that invests in wind, solar and landfill methane. For each $4.00, you buy a block of 100 kWh of electricity that does not pollute or tear down the mountains of West Virginia to dig up coal. Learn about the program and sign up at http://www.ncgreenpower.org/

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We invite you to add your prayers, intentions, actions and financial contributions to those of other individuals and congregations in North Carolina who are dedicated to preserving the health of our people, state and Earth

NC Interfaith Power & Light c/o NC Council of Churches, 1307 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 156, Raleigh, NC 27605

Helpful online resources.

Here’s a helpful informal web resource from a fella named Fred: http://www.weatherization.com/

Advanced Energy, a North Carolina non-profit, offers very specific information on most of these topics.

http://www.advancedenergy.org/buildings/knowledge_library/heating_and_cooling/

In January 2006 the State Energy Office conducted Energy Savings Workshops across the state for businesses and institutions. If you missed that opportunity, you can see the documents from the PowerPoint presentation at

http://www.p2pays.org/ref/38/37949.pdf

The State Energy Office site at http://www.energync.net/ offers either institutional (commercial) or residential energy saving tips.

Energy Star is a government-sponsored program that labels energy saving lighting and appliances. These are available at all stores, and any added cost to buy is soon recovered through savings on energy bills.

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/renewable_energy_basics/energy-star-label-saves-energy-and-money.html

Want to see what people of faith are doing to improve the efficiency of their buildings? Here is an assortment of information.

First, there is a list of qualified energy auditors on the website of the NC Council of Churches/NC Interfaith Power & Light:

http://www.nccouncilofchurches.org/areasofwork/issues/environmental_justice/energy_audits.htm

The Michigan Interfaith Power & Light group even sells Energy Star Appliances

http://www.miipl.org/

Georgia Interfaith Power & Light has a lot of practical information easily located.

http://www.gipl.org/

Want to learn even more about energy conservation and efficiency? Enroll in Energy College! It’s free and courses can be studied at your own pace. http://www.energymatch.com/energycollege/

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If you are working on energy conservation in your faith congregation, you are qualified to join the NC Interfaith Power & Light network. Sign the Congregational Commitment on the reverse side of this page, and return to NC Interfaith Power & Light, c/o NC Council of Churches, 1307 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 156, Raleigh, NC 27605.

We are a program of the NC Council of Churches and an affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light working to address the causes and consequences of global climate change through education and public policy advocacy.

We thank you for your prayers, intentions, actions and financial contributions as you join other individuals and congregations in North Carolina who are dedicated to preserving the health of our people, state and Earth.

a program of the NC Council of Churches and an affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light

NC INTERFAITH POWER & LIGHT

CONGREGATIONAL AFFIRMATION

Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.

And the Creator found it very good.

We believe that protecting God’s creation is a moral responsibility.

We believe that by responding to global climate change,

we are practicing stewardship for Creation

and recognizing our commitment to those who come after us.

We invite you to add your prayers, intentions, and actions to those of other individuals and congregations in North Carolina who are dedicated to preserving the health of our people

and the natural beauty of our state and our earth.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONGREGATION

(Please print)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

As a member of the congregation named above, I affirm that we will support the mission and goals of NC Interfaith Power & Light through one or more of the following activities:

· Engage in an ongoing process of education with our congregants concerning environmental stewardship and energy production and usage as they relate to global climate change.

· Conduct an energy audit of our buildings to improve energy efficiency.

· Make energy efficiency improvements to our congregation’s buildings.

· Enlist in the NC GreenPower program as a congregation and as individual ratepayers.

· Install Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs in our religious buildings and in our homes.

· View the videos “God’s Creation and Global Warming” or “Lighten Up!”

· Study the adult curriculum guides “It’s God’s World” (Christian) or “The Cry of Creation” (Interfaith).

· Join the NC Interfaith Power & Light electronic advocacy and information network.

· Advocate with public officials to reduce global warming pollution through public policy.

· Write letters to editors and opinion editorials that educate the public about these issues.

· Establish ongoing Care of Creation study or advocacy groups with the congregation.

· Observe Earth Day through a worship service or educational programs.

SIGNATURE OF MEMBER (and title if applicable) __________________________________

PRINT NAME__________________________________________DATE_____________________________

Please mail to Alice Loyd, Director, NC Interfaith Power & Light , NC Council of Churches, 1307 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 156, Raleigh NC 27605 Phone 919-828-6501 www.nccouncilofchurches.org