Retro-commissioning vs. Energy Audit

Today, implementing new processes that conserve energy should be a top priority for every business. Creating a sustainable environment introduces better ways to improve space, productivity, and employee safety, and maintain asset longevity for your commercial real estate.

To ensure your building systems are running at optimal performance and fine-tuned to responsibly use resources, begin your quality assessment with a process that identifies hidden deficiencies, problematic equipment, and misuse of energy.

Whether purchasing an existing building, planning a workspace redesign, or simply looking for energy-saving opportunities, consider the following to determine if a retro-commissioning or an energy audit is the right solution for you.

Reduce Operation Expenses

Operational costs soaking up most of the budget? Energy overuse is a costly circumstance and a sign your building system is running improperly. In this case, an energy audit can help you assess what areas are contributing the most energy usage. During this process, an energy auditor connects with your facility manager to review the building’s existing energy consumption equipment, such as lighting, heating and air conditioning, controls, refrigeration, air compressors, and water systems. The result? The audit lists existing conditions, energy conservation measures to follow, and associated cost savings to help you make the best energy efficiency decisions.

A step further, building retro-commissioning (RC) encompasses the same energy equipment but optimizes controls through repair, replacement, or automation. For example, your HVAC system set to automate based on desired temperature settings or occupancy can save your business immensely.

Increase Property Value

Green buildings are standout commercial real estate. Compared to conventional facilities, green buildings offer a competitive advantage, are better recognized by market buyers, and are known to present lower utility costs.

While an energy audit can help you uncover new cost-efficient measures to conserve energy, retro-commissioning is an ideal method that can restore a facility to its original structure by optimizing existing building systems and focusing on facility equipment and technology. Replacing temperature sensors, installing economizers, or improving indoor air quality through air purification and humidity control are a few ways retro-commissioning can add value to your facility.

Frequent Hardware Issues

If you’re experiencing unexplained hardware issues regularly, it’s a sign your facility’s system needs evaluation. Energy audits and retro-commissioning can provide insight, disclosing connections between specific equipment causing malfunction and excessive energy use. For an extended equipment life cycle and less need for repairs, retro-commissioning can help facility managers proactively manage heavily used energy equipment by improving efficiency. If your building system is structured and optimized to perform based on capacity, then unexpected downtime, disruption, and cost fluctuations are less likely to occur.

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Managing day-to-day operations is a hefty task for facility managers, and involving a retro-commissioning or energy audit project makes things more complex. Designing a new workplace environment with greater sustainability requires reliable support and resources to handle your facility’s unique needs.

At Suddath, our commercial moving experts, paired with proprietary office move technology, can provide eco-friendly decommissioning and liquidation support, office moving preparation, installation, and accessible commercial storage options to help you manage an energy conservation project. For your building optimization needs, our workplace technology partner, Phase Integration, is skilled to reconfigure your space through acoustic and sound masking, lighting design, and space utilization solutions to improve your environment.

Learn more about our services and speak with an expert today!