Hi,
This is Tom Olson. Thanks for purchasing my book. At this website, you’re looking to “Benchmark” your facility heating energy consumption. If you have never worked with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you might want to have someone familiar with it help you get started. Or, since this is going to be a frequently used tool, I’d encourage you to take a class before diving in.
What this program does is calculate the heating energy consumption of your building(s) in British thermal units/square foot/heating degree day (Btu/sq ft/hdd). To do so, you need to compile the heating energy consumption data for each building you want to study, as well as the heating degree day data for your area. If you heat with natural gas, your utility has done most of the work for you. Each bill will have the gas consumption converted to Therms (100,000 Btu/Therm) or DekaTherms, (1,000,000 Btu/DekaTherm). The program will convert from Therms to Btu’s. If your bill is in DekaTherms, multiply by 10 to enter the proper number of Therms. If your heat source is electricity, propane or oil, you can enter the units of consumption listed on the spreadsheet, directly from your bill. The spreadsheet will also convert your data to Btu’s.
Both electric bills and natural gas bills will usually provide local heating degree day information. This is a measure of how cold it was for the month. It takes the high and low temperatures for the day, divides by two, then subtracts that from 60. If you heat with propane or oil, you’ll either want to go to: http://www.weatherdatadepot.com for United States or Canada locations, or try to check your tanks on the same day that the gas or electric company read their meters. By using the hdd from the gas or electric utility bills, it will match the consumption data precisely. Your providers should be able to help you convert the reading to gallons of consumption.
Next, you need to know that your computer is equipped with Microsoft Excel. When you’re ready, simply left-click on the link at the bottom of this page. Left-click “Save As”. This will allow you to pick, or make a new folder location to put the spreadsheet into your computer.
At first, it may appear a little overwhelming. It’s not. You just need to be able to do a few simple things. What I illustrate in the spreadsheet is a full year summary benchmark, playing with different energy costs in Row 26 and different "What if scenarios" target consumption levels in Row 38.
Benchmark each building, so you can prioritize your work in the highest consuming facility first. If you have the time, go back a couple of years and enter the consumption data for a full year, for each building. I use July through June for my full year comparisons. That way I know I’m using the full years’ worth of hdd and not trying to divide between December and January.
The instructions on the bottom of the spreadsheet will help you "play" with different scenarios. For now, just enter the data for one building in the first column. Then, enter the data for the next building in the next column. If you run out of columns, copy a column from the top cell to the bottom cell and past it in the top cell of the next empty column, or “insert” a new column. You’ll learn how to do this in an Excel class, or from someone at work that has used Excel. When done, you’ll know how every building compares to the others.
There is a tendency for schools, or companies, with multiple facilities to want to take the highest consuming facility and see if the plan works. If you have to do this, it’s not the worst. But, after 35 years of doing it, repeatedly, I can tell you that the step-by-step plan outlined for you, absolutely, works!
What I recommend is to use the book as a training manual. Each subchapter averages a little more than 4 pages. Devote just 30 minutes a week to training, using a single subchapter for that week’s topic. The cost of the book is modest enough that each mechanic, custodian, maintenance supervisor, etc. should probably have one. Have each building complete most of the work suggested in Step 1, before moving on to Step 2. That way, everyone is learning at the same pace. If one building gets ahead of others, share the manpower until they are all on the same page.
Take lots of before and after digital pictures of everything! Make periodic photo presentations to your administration. At the end of the year, share your before and after benchmark figures, warts and all, with your administration. It may take a while, but you will eventually have some impressive figures to show off.
Once you’ve documented past annual performance, I suggest you document your heating energy consumption on a monthly basis. Occasionally, you’ll find that your consumption went a little crazy for a month or two. It’s extremely difficult to discover what happened in January, in July or August, after you’ve finally benchmarked the previous year’s data. If you have the ability to show your monthly benchmark consumption data on a graph, that can be very illustrative, as well.
Take another look at the “Bathtub” curve on page 164 of the book. If, as I’ve suggested, you start with July and finish with June, your benchmark figures should make a similar bathtub curve. In the fall and spring, you have very few heating degree days, so the heating consumption is divide by only a few heating degree days. In the dead of winter, the consumption is divided by lots of heating degree days. If your bathtub curve isn’t smooth, there is a reason for it. Keep working on it.
Okay, here is your copy of the Benchmark Calculator:
