Let’s face it, not everyone has the budget to completely electrify and go green. What can today’s building owners and facility managers do to meet increasing demand for buildings that don’t eat energy for breakfast or cough CO2 in the face of environmental concerns? How can today’s contractors help their clients take the steps available to them?

We’ve polled some of our internal experts and developed a list of items that contractors and customers alike can consider as low or no cost first steps towards greener buildings and, frankly, healthier bottom lines.

Light Bulbs

Has every fluorescent bulb in the building been replaced with more energy efficient LED lighting? According to this article from December, 2023 at the University of Michigan, LED lighting is up to 44% more efficient than your average, 4-foot fluorescent tube. Considering lighting accounts for 11% of commercial building electricity use, you can easily imagine the ROI.

Thermostats

How often do you check the thermostats in your building? Beyond making sure that your thermostats are in good working order, you should familiarize yourself with their programming. Can you set them on occupied/unoccupied schedules? Can you arrange night setbacks? If your thermostat allows for either or both of these, you can leverage that to help minimize power draw during peak demand hours. If you don’t have smarter thermostats, this might be one of the less expensive upgrades you can make that will have a remarkably large impact on your building’s energy consumption (and thus your budget).

Rooftop Economizers

Do you have them? If the answer is “yes” or “I don’t know,” you’ll want to get someone up there to check. If you have rooftop economizers that aren’t in good working order or have failed, you can’t take advantage of free cooling. Plus, failed economizers inhibit fresh air flow, which means they’re not just an energy problem, they’re a health concern for occupants.

Do You Have a Building Automation System (BAS)?

You might consider a BAS if your building doesn’t already have one. A robust BAS takes our previous point about smart thermostats and applies it across multiple building systems, letting you get your building to run itself smarter and more effectively. If you already have a BAS in your building, you should make yourself aware of data analytics and intelligent monitoring services. These services (Harris offers Telemetry, but there are many to choose from) add predictive power to your existing BAS, which helps reduce the number of times you actually need a truck to roll to your location (less truck rolls = lower emissions). In addition, smart monitoring services also put the power of better building management in your hands by letting you view the performance of your building from anywhere you are via smart dashboards you can access by laptop or mobile devices.

Conduct a Field Verification and/or Asset Assessment and Get Benchmark Reports!

Your contractor can come out and check all your assets and systems to ensure they are running as they should be. A thorough asset evaluation can also give you insights into the lifecycle of your systems and equipment, which lets you plan repairs and replacements rather than be caught off guard by them (which is when things get more expensive). If you plan to go green in the future, you’ll also want to take advantage of incentives with various entities, and since your contractor can provide support to file for those incentives, you want to make sure you engage them early and often. Understanding where you are now helps you plan for later and get the most of the incentives available.

Variable Frequency Drives

These electronic power controllers can offer a one-two punch. When your equipment “soft starts” instead of whirring to life 0-60 like a Ferrari fresh off the line, it lasts longer. Plus, not only does less wear translate to savings on maintenance, it also means energy savings. Your bottom line will thank you, and there may be rebates available.

Low/no cost boiler strategies?

While it’s true that there’s no cheap way to make your boiler systems more eco-friendly, you can analyze leaks and overall performance to both manage risk and make sure they aren’t creating more emissions than necessary. The cheapest way to do this is with a boiler tune up. Utilities provide rebates for this every other year. Are you taking advantage? You can also run a combustion efficiency test on gas equipment and RTUs. Both offer energy and safety benefits that are well worth your while.

Have a Maintenance Strategy!

Money saved with a cheap maintenance plan (or no ongoing maintenance at all) feels good right up to the moment something fails. Failure to regularly clean coils, change filters, check systems and run reports all but guarantees huge spending later when something that could have been checked and repaired last week fails and requires replacement today. A rule of thumb: don’t buy the cheapest plan you can find; opt for the most thorough one you can afford.

Finally, whatever your goals, it’s imperative to have a strong working relationship with a contractor you trust. So, don’t shy away from exploring providers and asking questions.