Energy Audit of Buildings
In India, we are slowly and steadily waking up to the benefits of Energy audits. Though the pace at which we are moving leaves lot to be desired but we can still expect sustained energy savings in the times to come. BEE, India an organization mandated to herald and control all energy efficiency initiatives in India has taken a lot of measures to build the capacity, the sheer size of India’s economy and energy savings potential lying to be uncapped need more concerted efforts from the planners.
Commercial buildings present an area where energy efficiency projects are generally very simple and results can be seen in within short span of time. In US, studies which have been done so far, indicates that about 41% of energy usage is in Commercial and Residential buildings. This present a very big opportunity for people who operate in this segment.
Energy audit of buildings in India present a great opportunity for the Certified Energy Auditors. Buildings with connected load of 500 KVA or contracted load of 600 KVA fall in to the realm of ECBC code. Practically Buildings with roughly 1000 sqm of conditioned area would fall under this category.
Level –I energy audit which is also known as preliminary audit has at many a location demonstrated that energy savings to the tune of 30% can be achieved through the Preliminary Energy Audit of Buildings. Level-I audit basically requires benchmarking with the best energy intensity levels associated with various types of commercial and residential buildings.
Though the program is still is in infancy but very soon the savings from energy audits of buildings are going to be substantial.
