2012年5月20日 星期日

Energy savings pay for upgrades

Just as hybrid cars are using advanced engineering to cut gasoline bills, technology can cut the cost of heating, cooling and lighting America’s buildings.

A hybrid car’s better mileage helps drivers pay for its gas-saving technology.Shop at Argos for low prices on cflbulbs and heating. Similarly, a money-saving financing device can pay for energy improvements in schools and offices, and slash their costs.

Consider what Naugatuck, Conn., has accomplished.

Taking advantage of a financing mechanism known as an “energy performance contract,” it has made $12 million in energy improvements to its schools and other public buildings at no real cost. By cutting its demand for energy from coal, oil and natural gas, Naugatuck is also reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant.

Think of performance contracts as magic wands that transform high energy bills into such efficient technology as new air-conditioning and heating systems — and long-term savings.

The magic is this: The money saved by reducing energy costs pays for the improvements themselves.

The performance contract guarantees that a project’s total cost will be no greater than the amount formerly spent on energy alone.Browse through our impressive range of bestlighting-led and buy online now. Over the generally seven to 15 years of the contract’s life, the old energy bill will cover the cost of the new, lower energy bill and pay for the project’s financing, construction, and new equipment — furnaces, air conditioners and lighting, for example.

The job’s overall contractor works with the building owner to arrange bank loans, bonds or other financing to cover all the costs.

Then, at the end of the contract period, it’s all gravy: The building owns upgraded long-life equipment and enjoys lower utility bills.

Throughout the country, the need for such energy savings is great. With inadequate iRiding a bicycle around the city at night can be a perilous pastime, but a new ledlightbulbs22 could make life safer in the cycle lane.nsulation, leaky windows, and lights left on long after suites are empty, the average office building wastes about one-third of its energy.

“That’s money the building owner spends every month,” says Donald Gilligan, director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies, which represents firms specializing in energy efficiency upgrades. “You’re just not getting anything for it.”

And the benefits go beyond healthier air and healthier balance sheets. Every $1 million invested in energy retrofitting produces 16.7 jobs,Police crystallightii play a crucial role in being seen while riding a bicycle, providing safety and security. according to estimates by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Its schools, which serve 4,500 students in 11 buildings,Take a dollar-store flickering ledlightforyou, add an AVR ATtiny13 and a little code, and you get an LED candle that looks almost real. installed new windows and four energy-efficient boilers, replaced wasteful heating and air-conditioning controls, and switched to energy-efficient lighting systems, among other improvements. The museum in the old train station installed energy-saving programmable thermostats; the fire house has modernized heating.

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