Townships are responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of their public buildings. The variety of buildings maintained by a township can include schools, police stations, fire stations, community centers, administrative buildings, libraries, public event space and even senior living homes, court houses and hospitals. Often, the total area of these buildings can range from 500,000 SF (square feet) to 3M to 4M SF or more. Annual energy costs for these buildings can range from $.50/SF to $5/SF. If an average cost of $1.50/SF per year is assumed for energy consumption, a town with 2M SF of public building space is spending $3M each year on energy costs.
The age of public buildings in a town will also vary greatly as will the types of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and envelope systems and technologies. More often than not there are less than a handful of building operators that work really hard just to keep these systems up and running, let alone have the time track system efficiencies and make adjustments to help reduce operating costs.
An energy audit of township buildings can easily identify economical measures that will reduce energy costs by 15% or more. This is an annual operating budget reduction of $450,000, based on the above example. If an acceptable payback period is 5 years, the budget for these upgrades is estimated at $2.25M. Recognizing that townships may not have the capital to implement all of these measures in one fiscal year, the engineering team performing the audit can work with the community to develop a master plan that will help prioritize how and when these upgrades should be installed. The audit and planning services should only cost a fraction of the estimated annual savings and the planning board will have a detailed study to budget operations costs for the following few years.
When the project is finished, the township will be spending fewer dollars on energy costs and have buildings that are more comfortable and healthy for the occupants.