Property Condition Assessment And Energy Audit

Adding an Energy Audit or Energy Benchmarking to a Property Condition Assessment (PCA) can put dollars in your pocket

. A PCA gives you an indication of the current and future costs of building maintenance, but you could be missing out on many cost-savings measures.

Energy Benchmarking is a cost-effective first step to understanding and reducing your energy consumption and carbon footprint. Benchmarking studies a building's current energy usage and helps determine achievable and cost-effective energy reduction goals.

An Energy Audit is a comprehensive look at how a building consumes energy along with recommendations to reduce energy use (via no/low cost measures or capital intensive measures), costs to implement, projected cost savings and payback period. While an Energy Audit is a more involved process and can vary in the level of detail (ASHRAE Levels 1, 2 and 3), the potential returns on investment are significant.

A building purchaser would be interested to know, for example, if a lighting system upgrade could result in a 34% internal rate of return. Well, that's just what one of Partner Energy's audits uncovered. A combination of new high-efficiency lighting and motion sensors (at a total cost of approximately $44,000) resulted in an annual energy cost savings of $14,700 and a relatively short payback period (less than 3 years). At an 8% cap rate, the building value increased by $183,000 (over 4 times the installation cost) - certainly a sound investment! And that did not account for potential rent increases, increases in absorption and decreases in vacancy for Green Labeled buildings.

By reducing operating expenses and increasing building value, an Energy Audit and its recommended energy efficiency measures can help building owners and purchasers achieve their energy efficiency and capital investment goals.

by: Joe Derhake

POST COMMENT

How to Choose a Solar Charger? Watch New York Giants vs Minnesota Vikings live Streaming NFL Week-14 on 12 December Pick a Great Dog Crate to Prepare for Your New Puppy Taiwan, Mainland China Increased Generation Panel Line Faced With New Threats To -6 On Behalf Of The The New Four Xilinx Spartan-3a Fpga Devices Rap Beats Experimenting Creates The Next New Hip Hop Thing To See How The United States Fiscal Policy To Address Climate Change - Energy Efficiency, Energy - Voip Technology Opens Up New Market Possibilities The Excitement Surrounding New Android Releases Financing - Using Renewable Energy To Help Your Business Succeed Stream NFL Watch Chicago Bears vs New England Patriots Online Live via PC Building Business Credit - Three Steps Every New Business Owner Should Know Be Successful With Your New Year Fitness Resolutions