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 Use
of electricity by businesses in the St. Louis area is far from a
static situation. On the one hand, Ameren UE hasn’t raised the price
of those “ready kilowatts” in 15 years, which has resulted in local
businesses enjoying rates that are 18 percent below the national
average.
On the other hand, businesses of all kinds continue to increase
their use of a multitude of electro-technologies. Where once sat
the ubiquitous IBM Selectric typewriter now sits a computer, color
monitor, modem, printer, scanner, fax machine and, perhaps, even
a personal sound system. Controls that were once operated individually
by hand are now handled by centralized electronic control systems.
And, stiffer environmental compliance issues have encouraged the
use of electricity over other fuel systems. All of these have helped
drive a one to two percent growth of total electric usage annually—the
same as the national growth rate.
Controlling and/or reducing the use of electricity does not have
to be a shocking experience. According to some local experts, putting
kilowatt consumption on a diet can be as cheap as changing the dress
code in summer months and as extensive as retrofitting your building
with a higher efficiency cooling system and fan motors.
The Big Ticket Items
In the hierarchy of components that use electricity, the supreme
consumer in St. Louis is air conditioning. The good news is that
recent innovations in air conditioning chillers and the motors that
move around all the cold air they produce have made these components
leaner and cleaner.
A 15-year-old chiller can be replaced with a new one that will reduce
the consumption of that piece of equipment by approximately 40 percent,
according to Stephen Duda, manager of mechanical engineering for
Ross & Barruzini, a local architectural and engineering firm.
“The chiller manufacturers have been very competitive with each
other in the last 10 years. They are all trying to outdo each other
in energy efficiency. They are increasing the amount of internal
tubing, which increases the heat transfer and squeezes out all the
available thermal energy that the machine produces,” he says.
A more efficient cooling system obviously can save in direct operating
costs, but it can also save in indirect costs. “For instance, if
a building is uncomfortable, a business can realize a reduction
in the productivity of its employees,” Duda says.
The past decade has also seen improvements and innovations with
motors, too. According to information provided by Ameren, motors
account for approximately 70 percent of all power use, particularly
in the industrial sector. So, a more efficient motor can make a
significant difference in power consumption. In fact, the tab to
run a motor can be as much as 10 times its initial price tag.
“One of the innovations that has been developed in the past 15 years
and is becoming more popular is the variable drive motor, also known
as the variable frequency motor,” says Milt Lane, director, key
account executives, at Ameren. “These motors match the power going
into the motor to the load being demanded of it.”
Variable speed motors are available not only on new equipment, but
can also be retrofitted into most existing systems. Ameren offers
its commercial customers a program called Motor Miser. This program
helps evaluate the efficiency of existing electric motors and facilitates
the process of assessing whether a motor needs repair or replacement.
The heart of Motor Miser is MotorMaster Plus energy-efficient motor
selection software, which helps customers calculate the payback
involved in purchasing new motors, as well as to develop a daily
motor management system.
The Smaller Ticket Items
Not all energy efficiency improvements mean laying out a lot of
cold cash. In fact, business owners can experience significant energy
savings doing the same types of things they do at home—like making
sure windows are properly caulked and outfitted with curtains or
blinds to block the withering summer sun.
“Windows are your biggest loss per gain of heat,” says Dave Steimel,
a key account executive at Ameren. “Energy efficient windows are
well-worth the investment when you consider that you can lose 30
percent of your heat through the windows.”
Interior lighting is another item that can be upgraded and improved
with minimal investment. Replacing incandescent light bulbs with
new, more energy efficient compact florescent bulbs saves in two
ways.
“Compact fluorescent bulbs are a very good investment. They use
less energy to provide light and they do not give out as much heat
as normal incandescent bulbs. So you are saving on lighting costs,
as well as not having to cool the heat that the other bulbs put
into the room,” Steimel says.
Other ways businesses can clip their electric bills is through better
management of their usage. Ameren offers a fee-based meter information
management system called Abacus™. The system provides a report of
usage every 15 minutes via the Internet to help monitor, track and
record energy demand and usage.
“Abacus™ allows you to recognize when you are hitting your peaks
with electricity use. Once you recognize what equipment is running
at a certain time or what is happening when you hit a peak, you
can try to make a move to control it,” Lane says.
Yet another way to save electric costs is to begin at the planning
stage of a new building. “Nothing beats good initial design by an
experienced consulting engineering firm,” Duda says. “Equipment
selection is more practical in a new building.”
And perhaps the simplest, most low-tech advice of all is for businesses
to set the dress code thermostat to casual, at least during the
summer months. “You can turn the thermostat up a couple of degrees
higher if the men are not required to wear long-sleeved shirts,
ties and, of course, coats,” Duda says.
C.B. Adams is a St. Louis-based writer, communications consultant
and adjunct faculty member at University of Missouri – St. Louis.
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