What a commercial energy audit is, and what it is actually for
An energy audit establishes what a building currently consumes and what it would consume after specific work. In New Jersey that second number matters more than most owners expect, because the utility incentive is calculated from the difference between them.
- Needs
- 12 months of bills
- Both fuels
- Electric and gas
- Sets
- The incentive
Why the incentive depends on it
New Jersey utility programs pay for energy savings, not for equipment. Until somebody has measured what the building uses now and modeled what it would use afterward, there is no number to base an incentive on.
This is the part that surprises people. A high-efficiency boiler does not carry a fixed rebate. It is worth whatever the model says it will save against the specific unit it replaces, in the specific building, on the usage pattern shown in that building's own bills.
It is also why the process runs in the order it does. A price before a survey would be a guess, and a guess on a project where incentives commonly cover most of the cost is not much use to anyone.
Why twelve months, and why both fuels
Energy use is seasonal. A partial year misstates the saving in whichever direction the months happened to fall. And most New Jersey buildings are billed by two different companies running two separate incentive programs.
A summer-heavy sample makes a cooling project look better than it is and a heating project look worse. A full year removes that distortion, which matters because the model is what the utility will be asked to fund.
The second fuel is the one people forget. A building can be on PSE&G for electricity and New Jersey Natural Gas or Elizabethtown Gas for heat. If the gas bills are missing, only the electric half of the project can be modeled — and on a boiler replacement, that is the smaller half. The gas-side incentive is frequently the one left unclaimed simply because nobody mentioned the two were separate.
What actually happens on site
Walking the building and logging what is there: equipment, age, nameplate data, condition, controls, and how the spaces are actually used against how they were designed to be used.
Nameplates establish what the equipment was supposed to do. Condition establishes what it is doing now, and the gap between those two is usually where the saving is. A seized economizer, a short-cycling boiler, or a constant-speed chiller all mean the real baseline is considerably worse than the specification implies.
Occupancy patterns matter as much as hardware. A hotel with heavily seasonal occupancy, a warehouse where most of the heat ends up at the roof, and an office running full plant for a half-empty floor all model very differently from buildings that look identical on paper.
What you get out of it
A defensible figure for what the work saves, what the utility will contribute toward it, and what the remaining cost is — plus a scope that reflects what is worth replacing rather than everything that could be.
Not every piece of equipment in a building is worth touching. Part of the point of the exercise is separating plant that is genuinely at end of life from plant that has years left, so the project is scoped around the first group.
The application, the modeling and the utility coordination are our scope, not yours. What we need from you is the twelve months of bills, the utility account details, and access to walk the building.
Common questions
What is an energy audit?
An assessment of how much energy a building currently uses and how much it would use after specific upgrades. For commercial retrofits in New Jersey it also produces the energy model that determines the size of the utility incentive.
What does a commercial energy audit cost?
For a retrofit project we are scoping, the survey and energy model are part of our scope rather than a separate line item. Standalone audits carried out by other firms are priced separately and vary with building size and depth of analysis.
Why do you need my utility bills?
Because the incentive is calculated from actual measured usage rather than from building size or equipment lists. Twelve months of both electric and gas bills is the raw material for the model.
What if I only have some of the bills?
Your utility can supply twelve months of history on the account. If only one fuel is available we can model that side, but on a heating project the gas side is usually the larger incentive, so it is worth retrieving.
Does an audit commit me to doing the work?
No. It establishes what the project would save and what it would cost after incentives. Deciding to proceed is a separate decision.
Related equipment
More guides
- A2L refrigerants and the R-410A phase-outYour existing equipment is not illegal, and you are not required to replace it. What actually changed, and what it means for a planned retrofit.
- HVAC economizersThe most expensive failure in commercial HVAC produces no service call, no complaint and no alarm. It just quietly doubles what cooling costs.
- Demand chargesTwo buildings can use identical total electricity and get very different bills. The difference is usually demand.
- Steam vs hot water boilersA great deal of New Jersey's prewar apartment stock still heats with steam. What that means when the plant reaches end of life.
- VRF systemsVariable refrigerant flow is not a premium version of a split system. It solves a specific problem, and in the wrong building it is the wrong answer.
Find out what your building qualifies for
A survey and an energy model tell you the real number. That is a phone call, not a commitment.