In an effort to promote best practices in energy audits and to fill a void in available information on everything from how to hire an auditor to what to look for in an audit report, ASHRAE released updated guidance in late 2011.
Jim Kelsey, P.E. is a principal at kW Engineering and a principal author of "Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits, Second Edition" which was written in collaboration with a group of experienced energy auditors and ASHRAE members. He spoke with Jennifer Kovacs Silvis, Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Building Ideas, about the updated version of the book and how its guidance can be applied to healthcare facilities.
In this first part of a two-part series, Kelsey explores the reasons behind the update to ASHRAE's guide, why energy audits should be pursued, and how healthcare facilities should prepare for the process.
What led to this recent update of “Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits”?
We were trying to fill a void. The previous version of this book was very brief and really focused on defining the levels of energy audits in a standardized way, but there was very little material about how to do energy audits.
And, still, nationwide there is very little published material about how to do audits and how to do them well. The main idea behind it was to fill in a lack of information in the industry and a lack of standardized approaches.
