End-users and contractors working together are greater then the sum of the two parts

Two recent presentations, one to a group of end-users, and another in-house training session with a contractor opened my eyes to a number of energy issues.

At both presentations I asked the same questions and whilst the answers matched to some questions, they were very different for others.

For example, I asked those present that knew their car’s ‘miles per gallon’ consumption figures to put their hands up. Every one of them raised their hands. They all knew the fuel consumption of their vehicles even though most of them don’t actually pay the bill which is met by their company.

I then asked them to keep their hands up if they knew how much they paid over the total year to run their cars. Only one kept his hand up and explained that he ran his own car on a company mileage scheme and so he keep a log.

I then asked similar questions to both groups about energy consumption of refrigeration systems. By a similar simple show of hands method, we reached the following results:

The end users:

• Knew their total annual energy spend on their refrigeration systems (perhaps these were an enlightened few!),

• However, they did not the break-down of the total usage in terms of the system components and so didn’t know which items to tackle first.

• Several had new budgets allocated to spend on energy saving measures

• These budgets did not include any expenditure on maintenance as they were unaware that maintenance regimes can actually reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency.

For the contractor:

• They did not know the annual energy cost (or consumption figures) for any of the plants that they maintained or had installed

• When given an annual figure, they could calculate back (or forwards) to reach approximately the same figure from their knowledge of the components of the system. In other words, they knew which component used how much energy.

• They didn’t think that many end users had budgets for energy saving measures

• Even though they knew the energy saving advantages of a good maintenance schedule, they didn’t offer it, didn’t quantify it, and had never marketed the advantages to the client.

Whilst these answers from these two small different groups are not be entirely representative of the industry as a whole, they are interesting and thought provoking. They indicate two groups that each have certain knowledge that if shared could benefit each other.

The end user often knows the total energy bill, but doesn’t know how to break it down to identify the consumption of the individual components. On the other hand, the contractor/service provided often has the expertise to do these and to make sense of the results but may not have been given the overall consumption figures by the end user.

Perhaps the most disappointing is the lack of communication and effort in understanding the benefits of a rigorous and systematic, and more importantly, a regular approach to maintenance. It is well known that even small changes in certain parameters can have very large effects on energy consumption. For instance, a 1ºC increase in condensing temperature caused by a dirty condensing coil can increase energy consumption by 2 to 4%. Similarly, a 1ºC reduction in evaporating temperature possibly caused by heavily frosted or dirty cooling coils may increase costs by 2 to 4%.

The contractors all know this and can even demonstrate it physically if required but do not relay this message on to their customers, and when they do, the message often falls upon deaf ears, because the budget that the customer has (if they even have one) is for capital equipment, not maintenance.

If the contractor is made aware of the energy consumption figures for the plant they are maintaining, they can plan and implement a maintenance program that detects and rectifies efficient items that may other wise good unnoticed. End users may consider increasing the value of maintenance contracts if they can see that the increase is cost effective by reducing energy consumption of the system.

Finally, by having contact with these two groups, it soon becomes obvious that there are many common interests and shared goals, but that these are sometimes viewed from opposing perspectives. If the end-users and contractors/service providers learn to share the information together and take an holistic system approach, it is very possible that the significant energy savings that are evidently there to be made may actually be achieved.