Tools and Resources

Commercial buildings all use different mixes of energy including electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, district steam, and many others. In order to evaluate energy performance for these buildings, we have to express all of these different energy types in a single common unit. Source energy is the most equitable unit of evaluation, and enables a complete assessment of energy efficiency.

For consistency and comparability, all energy performance metrics in Portfolio Manager reports are expressed in either thousand British thermal units (kBtu) or billion joules (GJ) and are annualized to 12 calendar months. However, in most cases your energy bills are not presented in these units and are not tied to calendar months. Therefore, a series of procedures is applied to make these conversions.

Portfolio Manager offers three main meter types, based on the most common ways buildings receive energy:

When you benchmark your building in Portfolio Manager, one of the key metrics you’ll see is energy use intensity, or EUI. Essentially, the EUI expresses a building’s energy use as a function of its size or other characteristics.

For most property types in Portfolio Manager, the EUI is expressed as energy per square foot per year. It’s calculated by dividing the total energy consumed by the building in one year (measured in kBtu or GJ) by the total gross floor area of the building.

Owens Corning saves several million dollars with minimal investment by using Prenova/Owens Corning’s Energy Process Optimization.

Use this sample letter to make an official commitment on behalf of your organization to purchase ENERGY STAR certified products. The letter explains why your organization has decided to implement an energy-efficient purchasing program, what the benefits are, and how your employees should implement the plan. Send this letter as an announcement to employees or use it to communicate purchasing requirements to appropriate colleagues. This letter can be modified as needed.

PSI implemented innovative energy strategies at eight Ford facilities saving $16 million a year and improving plant conditions without any upfront costs for Ford.