How much is energy wastage costing your facility?"

Global annual electrical energy consumption increased 350 percent from 1973 to 2010, according to the International Energy Agency. Yet, according to Scientific American, for every unit of energy that is converted into electricity globally, two units of energy are wasted.

Here is the good news: commercial and manufacturing facility managers worldwide have shown a sustained interest in optimising energy use by their buildings. They are interested not only in reducing operational costs but in improving productivity through more efficient maintenance and scheduling practices. With the lean approach now applied to facility management, energy usage really does matter to the bottom line.

However, many facilities lack the data to assess how much of their building’s energy consumption is necessary and how much is wasteful. Saving energy starts with identifying the source of the waste, but reducing the waste usually requires some combination of labour, materials, and capital investment. Without quantifying the waste, facilities cannot calculate how much the waste is costing or determine whether the solution will pay for itself soon enough to be worthwhile.

To help bridge that knowledge gap, Fluke has launched the Energy Resource Center, an interactive knowledge base to help facility managers both identify and quantify energy waste. The Fluke resources explain how to target the best opportunities for energy waste reduction in facility equipment, processes, and infrastructure and what data to gather to prioritise energy-saving projects and estimate their pay-offs.

“There’s a wealth of general information about energy management out there, but most managers have limited time and budgets,” said Fluke Industrial President, Wes Pringle. “They need to make ROI-based decisions specific to their facility. Fluke has built some of the best measurement tools on the market for gathering energy usage data. But the Energy Resource Center is an essential extra: it provides the context explaining what data to gather, where, and how to make use of it.”

The Fluke Energy Resource Center features interactive diagrams that illustrate energy wastes and measurement steps for various building systems. Visitors can watch videos and webinars about where energy waste occurs in electrical systems, production processes, and building infrastructures and download ROI examples and checklists for use in their own buildings.

Visitors can also register for in-person Energy Measurement Principles workshops hosted by Fluke in cities around the world. The workshops review energy principles and coach participants on quantifying energy waste, understanding utility bills, and identifying cost-saving energy options.