Big Green Zero Updates Energy Audit Scorecard

March 21, 2012 - PRLog -- As energy bills increase, the commercial energy audit is increasing in popularity, thousands of audit vendors are offering their services. In fact, energy auditing has turned into something of a gold rush. And, as is the case in every gold rush, the quality of participants varies from good to bad to ugly.

To aid clients in identifying a good commercial energy auditor, Big Green Zero (http://www.biggreenzero.com) published a Commercial Energy Audit Scorecard during 2011. Big Green Zero has revised the scorecard based on user comments and has republished it 2012.

The Big Green Zero Energy Audit Scorecard

Looking to hire a commercial energy auditor? Ask your potential vendors these six questions:

1.  Will the audit be conducted by an experienced engineer, or licensed contractor, who  
     understands energy-related structural issues and energy consuming systems?

2.  Will the energy audit be analyzed with specialized software designed
     specifically for that purpose?

3.  Will the audit identify minimal and no-cost opportunities to reduce your energy bill?

4.  Will the prospective auditor provide references from commercial customers who are
     raving fans?

5. Does the energy auditor have any "axes" to grind. Do they sell any products
     that their audit may just happen to recommend?

6. Does the cost of the audit make sense?

Questions 1 through 4 are pass/fail. If the answer is "yes" a prospective auditor may be a good candidate. If the answer to any one of these questions is "no" the prospective auditor is not a good candidate.

Questions 5 and 6 are more subjective.

For Question 5, product sales people are unlikely to be unbiased. They are not good candidates. On the other hand, many contractors are able to be objective despite some degree of self-interest. The decision to retain them comes down to making a judgement about their honesty, objectivity and transparency.

Finally, Question 6 will separate good energy auditors from the bad and ugly. Any would-be auditor who offers a "free" audit is clearly a poor choice. Commercial energy auditing requires an engineering or extensive contracting background.  It also requires the use of special purpose software and financial savvy. All of that comes at a price.

A commercial energy audit can identify opportunities to reduce energy bills from 20% to 40% with minimal (and sometimes no) capital investment. But, commercial energy auditing is a gold rush. So, use this scorecard to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.

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Big Green Zero reduces energy bills for businesses and commercial building owners. Our unique engineering process typically reduces commercial energy cost by 20 - 40%, with minimal (and sometimes no) capital investment.