Minify Energy - Building Performance Blog
HOW BUILDINGS CAN BETTER SERVE THEIR PEOPLE
This month Finance & Commerce writer Frank Jossi focused his “Sustainable" column on “Saving cash, carbon with lighting upgrade” features Minify Energy. Check it out.
Have you upgraded all the lighting in your building to LED? Are you sure? According to the latest 2022 US Department of Energy report, approximately 56% of commercial buildings still have not upgraded to LED Lighting. Anecdotally, we have found that many of our clients BELIEVE they have already converted their facility to LED Lighting, only to realize after a free Minify Energy assessment that only a small portion is actually converted. Considering the savings potential as well as the many other beneficial reasons discussed below, we think it’s worth a second look!
Minify Energy is proud of a recent LED lighting upgrade completed for a large-scale commercial laundry facility in St. Paul. This facility, now benefitting from increased brightness, light quality, and a greatly improved working environment, works around the clock cleaning medical garments for many of the Twin Cities’ largest and busiest hospitals and clinics. Upon initial assessment, Minify Energy conducted light meter readings that ranged from 7 to 20-footcandles with a great degree of variance across the 85,000 SF facility.
RTUs typically represent a significant portion of energy consumption for a building, especially if they are the primary means of heating and cooling. And, they likewise present several opportunities for energy conservation and savings. And, while energy efficiency is a great reason to optimize your equipment, these updates can improve your tenants’ comfort, extend equipment life, and provide valuable operations and maintenance insights.
Minify Energy has been helping Minneapolis businesses leverage “Green Zone” incentives for community enhancements through energy-efficiency projects.
Minify Energy completed 7 projects in the North Green Zone with commercial and nonprofit organizations. Our efforts in the North Green Zone resulted in a 56% reduction in energy costs for participating businesses, and 59% of project costs were covered by incentives, delivering a 2.4-year simple payback. The combined projects reduced energy consumption by 334,427 kWh per year, which is equivalent to 235 metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions..
We’re sharing a recent LED Lighting project profile and the benefits to the owner, property manager, tenants, and the city. This is one of several projects Minify Energy has conducted in the Minneapolis North Green Zone. The project reduced lighting energy by 66%, and with 68% of the total project cost covered by grants and rebates, the owner saw a 1.3-year payback, while enhancing the indoor environment with 30%+ lighting improvement to help tenants in their operations.
Nonprofit organizations have a wealth of new incentives to help in their adoption and immediate ownership of clean energy solutions, including solar arrays and energy-efficiency updates to LED Lighting and HVAC systems. We’re going to focus on solar since the incentives are incredibly motivating!
An Array of Reasons to Invest in Solar in 2023
If you haven’t looked at solar panels for your building recently, it’s time to take another look. In 2023, the combination of sustainably generating your own clean energy, locking in rates, getting utility incentives, tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and other incentives can all make for an attractive package that “pencils out” well, often under 5 years ROI with 25 more years of pure money generation while the sun shines.
2022 has been a tough year for those paying utility bills. And, this year we’ve heard several building owners, managers, and tenants express frustrations around blown utility budgets by midyear, primarily driven by natural gas increases.
For 2023, 179D Nearly Triples Tax Incentives, Lowers the Thresholds, and Expands Eligibility to Tax Exempt Organizations.
The 179D Energy Efficient Commercial Building Deduction in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has some of the most significant updates to incentives for property owners and designers to improve the efficiency of their buildings.
Bigger Incentive with Lower Energy Savings Threshold
The new Act raises the deduction value from the current maximum of $1.88 per square foot up to a maximum of $5.00 per square foot. In addition, the Act lowered the minimum required savings in total annual energy and power cost from a 50% reduction to 25% reduction.
