Commercial Energy Audits on Chicago-area Storage Buildings Identify Hundreds of Thousands in Utility Savings and Prevent Lost Revenue

A series of commercial energy audits performed by Priority Energy uncovered opportunities for a storage company to save over $180,000 on their heating and cooling costs. However, this was only a portion of the company's total savings. The energy auditors prevented lost revenue and expenses associated with frozen and burst sprinkler pipes.

One of the facilities had experienced a broken sprinkler pipe months before the audit, on the top floor of a multi-story building. Water flooded hundreds of units, destroying customer belongings, and forced many customers to find another storage company. The broken pipe was originally attributed to aging infrastructure and loose connections, but Priority Energy found the problem was really due to the poorly insulated roof. Lack of insulation was not only costing the facility thousands of dollars in heating and cooling (and making it impossible to maintain contracted indoor climate conditions), but it was also, and more importantly, allowing the sprinkler pipes to reach temperatures cold enough to freeze. The pipes would have certainly broken again this winter and repeated a bad situation.

Frozen pipes and a jump in energy consumption by as much as 56 – 145%, prompted the chain to hire Priority Energy to perform energy audits on fifteen buildings to get to the root of the problems.

"I'm glad we could uncover the real cause of the buildings' problems to help them avoid wasting money or time on ineffective repairs. Our energy auditors utilize building science knowledge and diagnostic equipment to solve building performance issues quickly," said Robert Schildgen, the owner of Priority Energy in Park Ridge, IL.

In addition to the above, all the buildings needed to implement better maintenance schedules for their RTUs and HVAC systems. Open exhaust vents, air leaks and thermostat issues also contributed to the excessive energy use.

To learn more about Priority Energy and Commercial Energy audits go to https://www.priorityenergy.com/service/commercial-energy-audits-energy-assessments-chicago