If your church is working towards being a more energy efficient church, you will need to the changes made through upgrades. A previous post in this series discussed the importance of setting energy efficiency goals for your church. Now it’s time to measure your results.
The numbers are important and you have to make sure you are getting the right numbers – which leads me to my main point of the post:
Your church energy bill doesn’t tell you the whole story.
Your energy bill lists the energy used in kilowatt-hours and the $$$ money you owe the utility company. This doesn’t specifically tell you how the church is using the energy it purchased. For instance, you may have upgraded a room to LED’s, but it’s impact won’t show up on the bill if you had to run the AC longer because of a heat wave. The energy bill is impacted by activity in the building, conditions outside of the building, and current energy rates.
Church Energy Usage Fluctuates Throughout The Year
Activity at churches across America picks up during the fall and peaks during the holiday season. We see another activity spike during Easter. Then activity drops off during the summertime. So, is your church more energy efficient in the summer or do you just run less programming while the congregation is on vacation?
Conditions Fluctuate Throughout the Year
In certain regions around the country some churches have to run their heat for long hours. In others, AC usage places considerable demand on utility companies. Churches like any other commercial facility require gobs of energy for heating and air conditioning. So, environmental conditions may have caused your energy bill to go up (or down) because of varying usage unrelated to your recent upgrades.
It’s not uncommon for energy rates to rise from time to time.
Utilities are under extraordinary pressure to adapt to “smart” technology to reduce outages and grid maintenance. They are increasingly looking for ways to pass on costs to the users of the energy they provide. You may look at your bill and be surprised that your usage went down, but the cost went up.
These are examples of why relying on your energy bill alone is not enough to measure the impact of the change. Long term results hinge on your churches ability to keep track of actual reduction of energy usage in a way that is independent of church activity. Some improvements do require behavioral changes. But the measurement of improvement through changes in technology must be added to the equation.
Here’s how to measure the impact of your church energy upgrades:
- Monitor the specific system where changes were made.
- Measure during a regular event (during services, or a typical workday)
- Measure for a set duration of time (i.e. 60mins).
- Measure during similar conditions.
- Measure energy usage before and after the upgrade and compare the results.
As you begin to make changes towards being a more energy efficient church, an energy management system would be the best option for on-going monitoring of progress in reducing energy usage. However, small systems can be tracked using very simple energy measurement devices. I hope to explore and review a few of these devices in upcoming posts. Stay tuned.
