June 20, 2013 - Fluke launched the Energy Resource Center, an interactive knowledge base to help facility managers both identify and quantify energy waste. The Fluke resources explain how to target the best opportunities for energy waste reduction in facility equipment, processes, and infrastructure and what data to gather to prioritize energy-saving projects and estimate their payoffs.
The Fluke Energy Resource Center features interactive diagrams that illustrate energy wastes and measurement steps for various building systems. Visitors can watch videos and webinars about where energy waste occurs in electrical systems, production processes, and building infrastructures and download ROI examples and checklists for use in their own buildings.
Visitors can also register for in-person Energy Measurement Principals workshops hosted by Fluke in cities around the world. The workshops review energy principles and coach participants on quantifying energy waste, understanding utility bills, and identifying cost-saving energy options.
Global annual electrical energy consumption increased 350 percent from 1973 to 2010, according to the International Energy Agency. During the same period of time, the United States became the world's largest energy waster, with an efficiency rating of 42 percent (58 percent of energy wasted), according to The Energy Collective. Here's the good news: Commercial and manufacturing facility managers worldwide have shown a sustained interest in optimizing energy use by their buildings. They're interested not only in reducing operational costs but in improving productivity through more efficient maintenance and scheduling practices. With the lean approach now applied to facility management, energy usage really does matter to the bottom line.
However, many facilities lack the data to assess how much of their building's energy consumption is necessary and how much is wasteful. Saving energy starts with identifying the source of the waste, but reducing the waste usually requires some combination of labor, materials, and capital investment. Without quantifying the waste, facilities can't calculate how much the waste is costing or determine whether the solution will pay for itself soon enough to be worthwhile. "There's a wealth of general information about energy management out there, but most managers have limited time and budgets," said Fluke Industrial President Wes Pringle. "They need to make ROI-based decisions specific to their facility.
Fluke has built some of the best measurement tools on the market for gathering energy usage data. But the Energy Resource Center is an essential extra: It provides the context explaining what data to gather, where, and how to make use of it."
About Fluke
Founded in 1948, Fluke Corporation is the world leader in compact, professional electronic test tools. Fluke customers are technicians, engineers, electricians, and metrologists who install, troubleshoot and manage industrial, electrical and electronic equipment and calibration processes.