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Electrical Waste

Measuring energy and tracking energy use are the first steps to reducing energy costs. Review your utility bill and then use energy efficiency tools to quantify consumption at the utility service entrance and at your biggest systems. Compare the results of your electrical monitoring to your utility bill, and you will quickly identify cost-saving opportunities.

Hover your mouse over the illustration below to learn how to identify and measure waste at each point in the system.

Common wastes:
1.	Loads commonly left on after hours or unnecessarily run at peak rate time of day.
2.	No controls on motor may mean more output created than required.
3.	Over voltage/current conditions causing excessive power consumption to compensate.
4.	Phase unbalance and causes the load to consume power without being able to use it.
Identify and quantify:
1.	Thermal scan both electrical panel and mechanical load for overheating indicative of electrical inefficiency.
2.	Log power over time: How much power consumed at what time of day and with what amount of waste; check total kWh, power factor, peak demand, unbalance, harmonics.

Common wastes:
1.	Incandescent lighting systems consume excessive energy.
2.	No automated controls to consistently turn lighting and other equipment off at night.
3.	No seasonal adjustment of lighting levels.
Identify and quantify:
1.	Thermal scan electrical supply panel and loads for overheating indicative of electrical inefficiency.
2.	Log power over time at lighting supply to baseline consumption prior to upgrade.

Common wastes:
1.	Don't know how much power is being consumed or wasted, by which system.
2.	Don't know cause of power waste: excessive operations vs. poor power quality.
3.	Avoidable Peak Demand fees.
4.	No adjustment for time-of-day charges.
5.	Don't have a baseline to evaluate upgrades against.
Identify and quantify:
1.	Thermal scan for inefficient electrical components.
2.	Log power over time: How much power consumed at what time of day and with what amount of waste; check total kWh, power factor, peak demand, unbalance, harmonics.

Common wastes:
1.	Aging mechanical devices consume so much more power than new high-efficiency models that early replacement may be justified in reduced kWh consumption alone.
2.	Less waste at a controlled-load, though poor power quality and other motor/drive inefficiencies may result.
Identify and quantify:
1.	Thermal scan both drive panel and mechanical load for overheating indicative of electrical inefficiency.
2.	Log power over time: check total kWh, power factor, peak demand, unbalance, harmonics.