Understanding the impact of asset health on your overall power consumption can help you shape processes, identify the early signs of issues, take corrective action, and lower costs.
Why the importance of Asset Health?
For small and medium businesses, ensuring that your operations are running efficiently is crucial to your success. However, many business owners may overlook the impact of asset health on their overall business efficiency. The condition of your assets – including equipment, machinery, and other assets – can have a significant impact on your business’s productivity, profitability, and sustainability.
In this article, we will explore the importance of equipment health to SMEs and the benefits of energy audits for improving asset health. We will also provide some energy-saving tips specifically tailored for SMEs in Queensland, Australia.
Asset health (or equipment health) refers to the overall condition and performance of your assets, such as your equipment, machinery, and potential other material assets. Maintaining the health of your assets is essential for ensuring your business operates smoothly and efficiently without unexpected breakdowns. Here are some ways that asset health can impact your business efficiency:
When your assets are in poor health, they are more likely to break down or not perform as required, leading to costly downtime and production delays. Downtime can have a significant impact on your business, causing lost revenue and missed deadlines that might not be recoverable. By maintaining the health of your assets, you can reduce the likelihood of equipment failure and minimise downtime.
Healthy assets also contribute to improved productivity. When your equipment is running efficiently, you can complete tasks more quickly and effectively, leading to increased output and improved efficiency. The operator of the machine will be working with more joy also, providing other business advantages.
Maintaining the health of your assets can also help to reduce maintenance costs. Regular maintenance and inspections can help to identify and address issues early on, preventing more costly repairs in the future. It also allows for planned maintenance, where work on machinery happens when it is chosen.
Energy audits are an excellent tool for identifying and improving overall asset health if correctly implemented. An energy audit is a comprehensive assessment of your energy usage and equipment performance, designed to identify areas of improvement and energy-saving opportunities. Here are some ways that energy audits can benefit asset health:
Energy audits can help to identify energy-saving opportunities that can help to improve the operating cost of your business. By identifying areas where you can reduce energy consumption, safe money with the potential extend the life of your equipment in some cases.
By implementing the energy-saving opportunities identified in an energy audit, you can significantly reduce your energy consumption. Lower energy consumption will help your business bottom line and is great for the planet. It also helps with making the work environment better.
Energy audits can also help to identify areas where your equipment is underperforming or not operating as well as it should. By identifying and addressing these issues, you can improve the health and performance of your assets, leading to increased productivity and efficiency.
Queensland has a unique energy landscape, with a diverse mix of energy sources, including solar and other renewables. For SMEs in Queensland, there are several energy-saving opportunities that can help to improve the health of their assets:
Queensland is blessed with abundant sunshine, for long periods of the day, making it an excellent location for solar energy. Installing solar panels on your business premises can help to reduce your energy consumption and lower your energy costs. There are grands available for this from the government. It is important here that the right solar system is installed for your business that means not the cheapest or the biggest that could fit on the roof.
Upgrading to energy-efficient lighting, such as LED lighting, is an excellent way to reduce energy consumption and improve wellbeing of staff. LED lighting lasts longer and consumes less energy than traditional lighting, is usually a better source of light, reducing maintenance costs and energy bills.
When it comes to equipment health and equipment efficiency two other important elements at play are power quality and power factor.
Power factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is being converted into useful work output in your facility. In an ideal scenario, the power factor would be 1, meaning all the electrical power drawn from the grid is being used effectively. However, in reality, most electrical systems have a power factor below 1. A low power factor means that your electrical system is drawing more apparent power (measured in kVA) from the grid than it actually needs to perform the required work (measured in kW). This increased apparent power not only results in higher peak demand charges but can also lead to additional costs due to inefficiencies and potential penalties from the energy provider.
Optimising and maintaining your Air Conditioning and refrigeration system can also help to improve the efficiency of your business. By ensuring that your system is running efficiently, you can reduce energy consumption and extend the life of your Air Conditioning and refrigeration equipment
Equipment health is critical to the success of SMEs. By maintaining the health of your equipment, you can improve productivity, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance costs. Energy audits are an excellent tool for identifying energy savings and potentially improving equipment health by identifying energy-saving opportunities and improving equipment performance.
In addition, implementing energy-saving measures, such as solar power, energy-efficient lighting, power factor correction and energy quality, air conditioning and refrigeration system optimisation, can help to improve the health of your assets and reduce energy consumption. By prioritising asset health and energy efficiency, SMEs in Queensland can improve their bottom line and contribute to a more sustainable future.
If you’re in need of an energy audit, or just want to understand where to start, contact our team today for an obligation free discussion.
Energy prices are skyrocketing everywhere, and South-East Queensland is no different. So for QLD SMEs energy efficiency is high on the priority list. In this article we’ll discuss our top tips for reducing energy consumption – from simple process changes to installing new energy efficient assets.
The real low hanging fruit for energy consumption in many small to medium businesses is changing behaviours.
Use visual signage to remind everyone in the business of your expectations and as a gentle reminder to consider energy consumption on the job.
Cooling, ventilation, equipment usage and lighting are the main areas where simple behaviour changes can have a decent impact on the energy bill.
First and foremost – turn off equipment and lights when not in use and make sure all your devices are properly switched off to prevent any unnecessary power wastage. Sounds simple, however this is an area where many organisations stumble. A simple sticker next to equipment or light switches can be a gentle reminder that if something isn’t in use it shouldn’t be on. Timer switches are also an inexpensive, practical solution that can act as a failsafe.
Don’t set air conditioning too low. Aim to set the aircon to 24 degrees and keep cooling steady. Don’t keep changing settings up and down as this will use more power.
Remember – the more you cool a room the more energy it takes and this is not necessarily a linear equation.
To optimise cooling close windows & doors when using aircon as a lot of energy can be lost here. Essentially, by leaving them open you are trying to cool the outside world rather than yourself when inside – so don’t do it!
If ventilation is a requirement more energy efficient equipment can be installed that is more energy efficient than opening a window.
Modern air conditioning units can be lot more efficient than older units, especially with more variable heat loads. So, if you’ve moved into a premises with existing units, undertake a review of their condition and evaluate whether a newer model might be better.
Solar PV (generally referred to solar panels) can be a great addition to your energy efficiency plan. There is capital expenditure involved in implementing solar PV systems but this will be fairly negligible for most QLD SMEs. ROI is east to achieve thanks to sunshine being in abundance and solar prices continuing to reduce as technologies get better. Plus there are rebates and grants available for businesses looking to reduce their energy consumption through solar.
Solar power is quite reliable so depending on your needs and available space, you may be able to utilise solar to manage all of your energy requirements.
To determine what’s possible you’ll need to consider the following:
Thanks to its reliability and ROI we usually recommend solar as a complement to any energy efficiency improvement initiatives. Simple behaviour changes and managing part (or all) of your energy consumption through solar is synergistic.
When it comes to energy efficiency, there are plenty of ways that you can save money and reduce your carbon footprint. However, if you’re not sure where to start or what changes will have the biggest impact on your business’s bottom line—or both—it may be worthwhile to enlist the help of an expert.
A quality advisor will be able to undertake an energy audit that outlines your current condition, create a roadmap for achieving your target consumption goals, and help you to achieve them. Running an SME means dealing with a million and one tasks; having a partner to take the burden of managing energy efficiency allows you to focus more on building the business.
Energy consultants can help you identify opportunities for your business energy efficiency. They can also help you to identify the best financial incentives for energy efficiency improvements.
For example, some types of investments might actually cost less than their upfront costs once all their benefits are taken into account – like Solar PV mentioned above new HVAC systems, or lighting replacement.
On that note…
The most common energy consumption culprits are lighting and HVAC. We’ve mentioned changing behaviours, but it’s also very easy to reduce your lighting costs by changing light bulbs to more efficient models, or installing LED lights (if you haven’t already).
95% of use cases have an LED equivalent these days and they are the most efficient source of light. They have a long service life and a payback time of less than 2 years. LEDs with different levels of warmth, colour, and brightness are very easy to find. In fact, many LED light systems now come with smart tech built in, allowing you to control every aspect of your lighting set up for ultimate efficiency.
An often overlooked element of energy consumption for many businesses is the speed at which pumps and fans are running. Whether as a component of your equipment or part of your HVAC system – these elements can have a significant impact on your business energy efficiency.
The higher the flow rate and pressure of a pump, or fan speed / drag of a fan, the more energy they use and the more likely they are to overheat. By reducing these you will reduce operating costs and possibly maintenance requirements. Like the aircon example mentioned above – energy usage is not linear – so halving the speed of a pump or fan can cut energy usage by more than half. If the pump or fan is not critical to a production process this is a quick and easy way to drastically reduce energy charges.
The benefits of reducing fan speeds include:
A variable speed drive will enable you to have greater control over fans and pumps. In fact, technology can support you in many areas.
Controlling energy consumption across an entire business is simplified with some very accessible technology. Here are a couple of our favourites:
These devices monitor your power consumption and allow you to see how much electricity is being used at any given time. They can also help you identify where and when waste might be occurring within the facility. These can provide 24/7 visibility of energy consumption and accelerate the pace at which you can correct your course or implement new solutions.
Perfect for appliances, industrial equipment, and lighting that isn’t in use often. These will stop all power flow when they are turned off and can be set to timers or manually triggered. This way, those appliances will only draw on electricity when they need it and won’t waste power while idle (or even worse: after hours).
Ideally, you should be able to view your energy consumption and usage on a daily basis. However, if you can’t do so you should at least lock in regular reviews of your energy consumption habits throughout the year. There will likely always be something you can improve – whether through new processes, new assets or a mix of both.
In the end, the most important thing is to be conscious of how much energy your business is using. The more efficient it is the less you’ll be charged, meaning more money to grow the business!
If you manage a QLD SME looking to avoid excess energy charges and need a helping hand – speak to us. We’re experienced, reliable engineers who can save you money through energy auditing and practical solutions.
In this article we dive into how power quality affects your energy efficiency, utility bills and productivity.
Power quality is the consistency and stability of a power supply. It’s a term used in the electrical industry to describe the voltage, frequency, and waveform of an electric current. Power quality is essential for many devices to function properly.
Power Quality comprises a few elements, leaving organisations to consider the following in particular:
You don’t want these too high or too low. Anything outside the +6 / -10% band is not good.
The higher the power factor, the more efficient your system will be at delivering electricity to its destination.
Low power factor errors can result in more current being used than necessary. A poor power factor can cause equipment damage and high energy costs due to inefficient delivery of electrical energy.
A tolerable Power Factor is between 0.85 & 1.
Frequency shifts at multiples 50hz can cause distortions to energy efficiency and power quality.
So what should you aim for?
In general, the baseline to aim for is 50Hertz, 230/240Volts AC (230V for single phase and 400V for a 3 phase system) and a power factor of 1.
Anything outside of these metrics can be considered a material deviation from clean energy. Of course, there is some tolerance within the numbers but the further from the baseline your numbers are the more correction is necessary.
Of course, some things are out of your control – factors like voltage spikes, brownouts and sags that occur during peak use times when demand for electricity exceeds supply.
The power quality in your facility is highly important as it has a direct effect on the efficiency of your productivity, output, asset lifecycle, and overall energy consumption.
These all have an impact on your bottom line.
Furthermore, you can even be proactively charged by your energy provider if your power factor is lower than 0.85.
Power quality problems can be caused by the below and more:
The most common effect of poor power quality is extra heat within your equipment – which means wasted energy. Not to mention the extra energy required to cool your equipment down. This double up of energy consumption is inherently inefficient.
Even worse, when it comes to production equipment, inefficient machines means lower productivity. That mean energy, labour and time costs that aren’t paid back.
Issues like these stack up when left untreated and lead to significant, avoidable increases to your utility bills.
There is, of course, more than one way to bake a cake and fixes will be issue dependent. However for the common issues mentioned above there are a few things you can do.
The good news is that focus on Power Factor correction is relatively low-hanging fruit when it comes to combating poor power quality. This will help keep you within tolerances and achieve fast ROI on improvements.
When it comes to higher/lower voltages than expected, this may require more detailed investigation. You can conduct this yourself, but we’d highly recommend finding an energy specialist with experience in power quality fixes. They are likely to complete root cause analysis a lot faster and accurately. Plus if needed they’ll have the skills to fixing settings on Solar PV inverters or liaise with energy suppliers to change tapping’s on their transformer.
Harmonic issues are highly variable – with ‘gremlins’ in equipment often appearing at random and in different forms. For smaller systems a filter will usually help to mitigate harmonic distortions. Larger equipment generally requires some dynamic, ad-hoc correction system. This is once again where an experienced engineer can help; conducting an energy audit, developing a situation-specific solution and helping to monitor the results.
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In this article we outline the 4 key things to consider when it comes to achieving optimal business energy efficiency.
When striving for business energy efficiency – whether due to receiving high bills / peak demand charges from your energy provider or simply to lessen your organisation’s impact on the environment – there are a few key considerations to keep in mind.
Understanding what you want to achieve and the underlying reason is a critical first step. Like any project within an organisation a defined goal helps us chart a course, connect stakeholders with the bigger picture, track our progress and keep us accountable.
For instance, if you were looking to be the most energy efficient manufacturer in Brisbane, you would need a clear action plan. Not only for internal use but also to keep your target audience aware of the steps you are taking towards your goals.
When it comes to business energy efficiency there are a couple common drivers we regularly come across. A desire to save on energy consumption, to save money, or both.
But we urge organisations to dive deeper into what they really want to achieve. The deeper you go, the more meaningful your goals become. The more likely you are to be able to move towards achieving them with full stakeholder buy-in – which is essential.
Always remember the fundamentals of SMART goals. A goal should be:
It’s one thing to say ‘I want to use less energy’, but a better defined goal would be ‘I want to achieve Net Zero within 24 Months’. For this you might night some external help from an energy efficiency engineer.
Making goals SMART, clearly communicating your mission to everyone involved, and keeping this top of mind will help in many ways.
It supports accurate budgeting of project costs, helps to gain stakeholder buy-in, ensures our actions align to the core organisation values, and helps source the right partners.
Putting context around your energy consumption is useful for setting expectations. No doubt many Queensland SMEs feel they can do more. However, not knowing how much more is realistically achievable can set us up for failure (or at least a false feeling of failure).
It’s important to seek out benchmarks from your peers – either by asking them directly, searching online, speaking to an energy consultant, or attending business forums where this information may be disseminated. When you have benchmark to work from it becomes easier to determine required actions.
Remember – the further you are away from the benchmark the easier (and generally cheaper) it is to make gains. For instance, closing the doors when the air-conditioner is on in your premises is low-hanging fruit that can make great strides towards energy consumption goals. Whereas defining a set environmental temperature at which AC is to be switched on/off alongside a time-limit of use can help us achieve this low-percentage improvement.
It all comes down to where you aspire to be positioned. As mentioned above, when we have SMART goals in place and an understanding of why we want to achieve them, we set ourselves up for success. Do you simply want to save money? Do you want to be more energy efficient than your competitors to make claims in your marketing material?
These are all questions you should be asking of yourself and your business.
There is an increasing focus on supporting businesses in their energy-saving endeavours at various levels of government. With this focus comes increased funding opportunities but these aren’t always easily accessible or widely known. There are often a few hoops to jump through, reports to be conducted, and terms to be agreed to.
A consultant like Energy Engineers can help you access funding if it is available for your sector. We’ll take care of determining eligibility, preparing the right reports and documentation, and implementing the solutions sought.
That doesn’t mean that funding is the only requirement for an energy consultant to support your projects. Whilst funding is certainly important (and helpful) there are many ways that improved business energy efficiency can be achieved economically. A good engineer will help you find the most economical product regardless of your funding. Plus, we’ll help you to create a robust business case in order to identify ROI and other economic matrices. This opens up traditional finance channels and provides clear, itemised priorities.
With a defined business case there is no need to waste money and/or wait for government funding to take action. The process to save energy and lower your energy bills can start immediately.
Here’s a couple quick tips to consider when evaluating an energy expert to support your business’ energy efficiency projects.
Firstly, there is a professional certification for energy efficiency expertise. That’s right – qualified practitioners are Certified Energy Managers (CEM). So the first thing to do is to look for this accreditation from any consultant you are evaluating.
In Queensland a qualified engineer needs professional registration with BPEQ. Just like a doctor needs to register with an official regulatory body.
The global Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) has partnered with the EEC (Energy Efficiency Council) to provide the CEM here in Australia. This is to crackdown on the number of ‘cowboys’ in the industry providing sub-par advice or implementing solutions that don’t actually achieve the intended results.
Energy efficiency projects require a significant amount of technical knowledge. Standardised certification ensures that any practitioner understands the practise of energy management to an acceptable standard.
Also, watch out for an energy expert that is pushing too hard on a particular service or product. The best energy experts will treat you like a partner rather than just a client. They will work with you to prioritise tasks (and equipment purchase) rather than what their company wants to sell you. Your energy consultant should help you build a strong business case for the improvements you need and ensure you understand every element.
A good energy partner will provide the advice you need whilst taking the time to understand your concerns, bandwidth, and capacity for change.
If you’re a QLD business looking for energy solutions – speak to the team at Energy Engineers today and put us to the test.
An energy audit is a critical assessment of your energy efficiency, quality and consumption. By undertaking an energy audit an organisation can identify improvement opportunities. This should lead to a reduction in consumption and therefore capital savings.
Be it implementing more efficient lighting, heating, cooling, pumping etc. fixing / replacing inefficient equipment using more energy than necessary, or even making process changes.
The outcome of an energy audit of any level is identification of solutions and action items. An organisation should be provided with a roadmap toward being more energy efficient and thus closer to net zero.
Energy Audits in Australia are classified into three levels. There are established standards that practitioners must abide by for each level of inspection. The audit selected by an organisation is dependent on the individual goals and motivations for improving business energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency assessments can involve everything from a general survey to compare the organisation against benchmarks through to multi-day inspections of your site and ways of working.
These comprehensive inspections (seen in Level 2 or 3 Energy Audits) can include energy measurements, thermal imaging, visual inspection of processes, inspection of pumps and motors, vibration analysis and more. The higher the level of audit the more specific and granular the process.
Each energy consultant will have their own way of working within the framework established by our industry standards. Energy Engineers operates on a process of ‘Inspect, Correct, Monitor’ to make the road to improved energy usage clear and simple. This enables us to best support organisations in understanding their energy consumption, take action, and continue to make (and validate) improvements over the long term.
Insert our process graphic
Understanding what you want to achieve by engaging an energy consultant is a critical first step. A defined goal, alongside clarity of purpose, keeps all parties focused and accountable. A quality, accredited energy auditor can even help you in defining these goals by discussing your needs, as well as identifying your current state and capabilities.
When it comes to audit levels themselves, here’s a brief overview of what to expect from each:
A basic overview of your company’s energy consumption to identify quick wins and solutions for glaring issues. on offer for your organisation. A good energy auditor will also provide a comparison of your organisation’s current state against similar businesses. These audits are useful for smaller businesses looking to take their first step towards lowering their energy usage.
A comprehensive audit comprised of detailed data analysis with special instruments, in-depth assessment of energy usage and operating conditions at your site(s). As well as quantifying potential energy usage savings, these audits generally also include an estimate of costs to achieve outcomes, helping to form a business case for the project.
These audits generally require site visit by a Certified Energy Manager.
Audits of this level are great use to larger businesses, organisations with specialist equipment, and those who have already implemented the actions from a Level 2 audit.
Utilising asset-specific monitoring equipment we are able to most accurately record energy efficiency (and consumption) to quantify opportunities. There is significant focus, along with time spent, on assessing the efficiency of specialist assets or subsystems. These audits get into the weeds of energy consumption, helping to make those minor percentage gains and achieve net zero.
It is best to an engage a professional energy auditor / expert to help find the best solution for your needs and make an economical case with you. With this in place they can then help you access finance and funding for your energy efficiency projects.
Effectively tackling energy issues within an organisation requires time and skill. Finding a professional partner to own the energy auditing process (as well as implementation of recommend actions) enables you and your teams to remain focused on working in the business.
Of course, you can undertake an audit internally – though generally this does not yield much as often we are blind to our own problems. Wwhen one weighs up the time, resources and skills required to complete energy audits at the defined standards engaging a Certified Energy Manager is the best option. Plus a quality partner like Energy Engineers can not only conduct the review but also implement the solutions and tools to monitor efficiency over the long-term.
The implementation of monitoring and processes allows organisations to validate the effectiveness of a project to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption. It also provides real-time measurement of your overall system health to help adjust / correct on the fly.
Ideally, energy reporting tools are installed on your equipment and made part of your everyday process. However, we understand that not all businesses have the capability or capital to achieve this – not to mention some legacy equipment / systems may not be compatible. At the very least, your organisation should strive for a bi-annual review of energy efficiency once an energy audit is conducted and solutions are implemented.
This enables your organisation to identify new opportunities for improvement and continually optimise your energy usage practices.
Energy Engineers are qualified CEMs delivering audits and practical solutions for Queensland businesses. Speak to our team today if you’d like to learn more about our process, energy audits in general, or where to access quality resources for improving efficiency.
Have a question? Want to organise an energy efficiency audit? Simply fill in our form and we’ll be in touch soon.
Have a question? Want to organise an energy efficiency audit? Simply fill in our form and we’ll be in touch soon.
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