ASHRAE Level 1, 2 and 3 audits for buildings that are actually operated, not just owned.
A commercial energy audit is graded by depth, and the grades are ASHRAE's. A Level 1 is a walkthrough and a utility bill analysis: it tells you roughly where you stand against comparable buildings and where the obvious money is. A Level 2 is the working document — a detailed survey, an energy balance, measure-by-measure savings and costs with enough rigour to put in a capital plan. A Level 3 adds monitoring and modelling for capital-intensive measures where the risk justifies the cost of being certain.
Most buildings need a Level 2 and are sold a Level 1. The difference is whether you end up with a list of ideas or a document your CFO can sign.
We start with twelve to twenty-four months of interval data where it exists, because the load profile tells you things a walkthrough never will — overnight base load that should not be there, a demand peak set by one piece of equipment, a schedule that has not matched occupancy since a tenant left.
Where the building is in Ontario, Save on Energy's commercial programmes may fund a substantial part of both the study and the implementation. In Alberta, the SEMI programme pays up to $50,000 towards an energy assessment at a single facility.
An ASHRAE Level 1, 2 or 3 report with measures, costs, savings and a funding route.
Building owners, property managers, institutions and industrial operators.
Commercial — the rest of it
Common questions
Which ASHRAE level do I need?
If you need to know whether there is anything worth doing, Level 1. If you need to commit capital, Level 2. Level 3 is for when a single measure is large enough that being wrong about it is expensive.
Do you need our utility data?
Yes, and interval data if you have it. Twelve months minimum, twenty-four preferred. It is the single most informative input and it costs nothing to supply.