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• STEP ON THE GAS! Accelerate Your Distribution Center Energy Efficient Retrofits By Picking Great Partners

  I was recently visiting with a large major multi-national, multi-site corporation and discussing their progress in capturing energy reduction results across their enterprise’s more than 80 distribution centers. They shared with me the significant progress that they have made across their organization in lighting initiatives to drastically reduce their operating expenses utilizing best in class distribution center lighting technologies. They likewise had made progress inside their facilities in material handling equipment, shelving layouts, work flow designs and time saving technologies to expedite the touches inside the distribution center. As our conversation turned to HVAC system improvements, there was a noticeable pause. “Office HVAC system improvements and specifically cooling energy improvements inside the office have been a major focus area for years,” they shared. The industry in total has made progress there, working on upgrades from low efficiency, older equipment to higher efficiency systems for offices. Big commercial HVAC manufacturers have continued to improve systems. “What about HVAC improvements in the distribution center?,” I asked. “Do you have a plan to address heating and ventilation opportunities in the DC?,” I inquired. ...

• High Efficiency Space Heaters Get DOE's Attention

  Over the past 25 years, ASHRAE has dramatically increased the minimum efficiency requirements for commercial buildings and their associated equipment. The direct result: • 44% improvement in lighting efficiency • 27% improvement in cooling efficiency • 21% improvement in building envelope efficiency • 37% improvement in commercial building efficiency overall • But only 1% improvement in heating efficiency With such a small increase in heating efficiency compared to other categories, High Temperature Heating and Ventilation (HTHV) direct gas-fired heaters caught the attention of the Department of Energy (DOE) as a way to dramatically reduce energy consumption. In many commercial and industrial buildings, unit heaters are the popular choice for space heating. But, according to ASHRAE, these buildings require ventilation systems in addition to space heating in order to meet code. With separate systems providing space heating and outside air, most buildings have complex heating systems that consume too much energy. Wanting to find out for themselves the viability of the HTHV technology, the DOE conducted their own independent study. They discovered that direct-fired HTHV demonstrated 20% gas savings ...

• Your Customers Define Your Value; Customer Advisory Boards provide the framework to listen

  Truly understanding your customer’s needs and the value they place on your products and services is paramount to success in business. Defining and refining your value to the customer takes total organizational alignment. Alignment around the importance of the information and collaboration around collecting it, communicating it, and acting on it are vital. [caption id="attachment_199" align="alignnone" width="300"] value concept handwritten on blackboard[/caption] Customer Advisory Boards are a great way to engage the leadership in your own organization. They allow you to capture candid feedback on measuring existing corporate value statements against your messaging across the company. Are your value statements landing? Do they resonate with the people receiving them? What would your customers say is most important to them? Customer Advisory Boards provide three major benefits to an organization. 1. Deepening Relationships with Customers 2. Understanding Your Customer’s Value Language 3. Identifying Your Product/Service Gaps Deepening Relationships: People do business with people they like. Putting people together with one purpose, “How can we help one another achieve more together?” or better yet, “How can I help you over ...

• Choosing the Right Heating System for your Facility

  Is the heating bill for your plant or warehouse too high? What about cold dock door areas and unbalanced temperatures? Is negative building pressure a problem? Do your employees complain about it being too cold making it harder for them to do their job? Do you have high maintenance costs from existing heating equipment? These are just a few common problems that result from selecting the wrong heating system, misplacing your heaters so they can’t reach their full potential or using obsolete technology. What factors determine the best space heating system? Everyone wants a heating & ventilating system that meets their unique requirements at the lowest total cost. Before selecting a heater, define the heating/ventilating requirements and understand all the cost factors that determine the true lowest total cost solution for a specific facility. BOILER SYSTEMS One of the oldest forms of heating, boilers have been in existence since about the 1800’s and are still a preferred system of heating in large industrial facilities where remote plants deliver steam and hot water to satellite locations to circulate through heat exchangers. These exchangers ...

• Why Energy Efficient Products are a Critical Piece of the Net-Zero Puzzle

  What is a net-zero building? Basically it is a building that creates as much renewable energy as compared to the Delivered Energy it uses. By this I mean the amount of electricity and natural gas that is provided by local utilities or the Delivered Energy that is tracked by some type of meter and that you don't physically create yourself. This Delivered Energy is compared to the renewable energy that you do create onsite (solar, wind, hydro, etc.) and the net difference is equal to or less than zero. Depending on where you are located throughout the U.S. this can be difficult to achieve. Northern states that require more Delivered Energy to heat their buildings in the winter months may find it difficult to achieve net-zero. The amount of sunny days and their physical structures may not provide the environment to have enough solar panels and sun to generate the needed renewable energy to offset the Delivered Energy. And don't forget...those locations that have second and third shifts are going to be consuming delivered energy without the ability to generate ...

• Why Dedicated HVAC Systems Are Better for Your Facility

  For the facility’s unique processes and requirements, your team has designed and optimized every aspect of your operation. This optimization has become a minimum requirement for continued operation. But utilities and your HVAC systems are often thought of as ancillary systems. They become outdated and even neglected, despite this optimization of processes. For facility leaders, minimizing or eliminating any process interruption is always top of mind. And you must ensure that regulatory and safety requirements are met at all times. As a result of these and other operational pressures, you probably undertake frequent routine maintenance if you have an aging facility system. For you, these aging systems with like-for-like replacement lead to increased labor investment, higher operational costs, and shorter total system lifecycle. Production processes and technologies have changed Many facilities’ current boiler-driven process systems barely resemble their original design. Increasing the size of these systems to handle the heating requirements as well as the process loads added massive complexity and simply doesn’t make sense today. Instead of investing incrementally in an antiquated system, it is far more ...