Energy Consultants

Home » Industrial » Energy Consultants

Tips & Advice to help you make your decision on Energy Consultants

Buying energy can be a daunting task; there is a lot to understand before you make your purchase, many companies hire professional energy consultants. These consultants can provide the special services and advice that you need while you maintain and run your business. Many owners enjoy using a consultant because they know they are in good hands with a piece of mind that their energy bills are being handled with attention and care.

There is a process to hiring your own consultant; you must understand that this person will have access to your energy bills. The will be looking over them first to catch any mistakes or glaring errors in your service. Then, if you have existing contracts in place, they will inspect them to see what terms they could improve for you and your company. If your consultant can find you a better deal, they will tell you about your opportunities.

Next, the consultant will then come through your past bill statements, addressing the historical usage of your building from your electric provider. This is tedious and painstaking work that is best left to professional energy consultants. The ideal consultant will make you comfortable about their experience and knowledge. They will also help you focus more on your success, look here for more resources for your energy needs.

Conducting an Energy Audit

An energy audit is a wise move before making any major investment in new equipment or just to cut costs and do your part to conserve dwindling energy resources. Audits can save money and, in many, cases can be done for free. An audit can be as simple as analyzing utility bills or looking at the efficiencies of specific equipment to potentially replace it with something newer, leaner and greener.

An audit will you enable to:

Understand your pattern of energy use.
Determine if you're running the most energy efficient equipment.
Evaluate older equipment you're considering replacing. The results of an energy audit may be the final straw.

Talk to your power company

Believe it or not, many utility companies provide energy audits for free.
Try: Utilities such as the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Duke Power offer free audits for their small-business customers. Check with your utility company.

Ask your Uncle

Some small manufacturing businesses qualify for a free audit from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Try: Check out the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to see the requirements.The audits are conducted by teams from universities so your plant must be within 150 miles of one of the 26 participating schools.

Power down with software

Software can also help you keep track of and analyze utilities expenses.
Try: Energy Watchdog provides energy analysis software as does BizEE's Energy Lens application.

Call in the pros

Energy consultants audit your business and provide advice on how to cut costs, including advice on buying and installing equipment.
Try: Firms such as EMC can help you with an audit and provide guidance on the best ways to cut costs.

If you rent, your landlord also has an interest in having the plant run as efficiently as possible and may help pay for the audit and possibly even help with the cost of installing greener equipment.
Check with your state about rebates. Some states, including California, offer rebates for installing energy-efficient equipment. An audit is the first step.
If your plant consists of a small space (an office or shop) without complicated equipment such as freezers or machinery, you can perform a simple energy "audit" by analyzing your bills for spikes that may have been due to something as simple as leaving the thermostat up too high.