Energy Efficiency Audit Checklist

Request electricity (kWh and demand kW), natural gas (therms or MMBtu), and any purchased steam or water bills covering at least the last two full years. Two years lets you separate weather-driven swings from real consumption changes. Capture rate schedule, demand charges, and any time-of-use windows — these drive the savings math later.

Confirm with the plant manager whether this is a Level 1 walkthrough (visual + bill analysis), Level 2 energy survey (measurement + ECM list with simple payback), or Level 3 detailed analysis (calibrated energy model + life-cycle costing). Level drives effort, instrumentation, and report depth.

Coordinate with the plant manager and maintenance lead. Plan the visit to cover at least one full production shift plus a non-production interval — leak quantification and standby-load measurements both require the plant to be idle.

Look for failed dock seals, gaps under personnel doors, missing strip curtains between conditioned and unconditioned space, and roof insulation in poor condition. Dock leakage is the most commonly missed envelope loss in plants with frequent truck activity.

Count fixtures by type (T8, T5HO, metal halide, high-pressure sodium, existing LED), wattage, and area served. Capture annual operating hours by zone — production floor often runs 4,000–6,000 hours; warehouse and office run far less. Hours drive the kWh savings, not just wattage.

Walk warehouse aisles, restrooms, mechanical rooms, and break rooms with the lights off and confirm sensors trip correctly. Disabled or bypassed sensors are common — operators get tired of working in the dark and someone tapes over them.

Record nameplate tonnage, age, refrigerant type, and EER/SEER where listed. Note economizer presence and whether dampers actually modulate (stuck economizers are a top-three HVAC finding). Confirm setpoints and schedules against actual occupancy.

Read header pressure at the compressor and at the farthest end-use. A drop greater than 10 psi means a piping or filter restriction. Confirm whether compressors run during off-shifts — running 168 hours/week to feed a Monday-through-Friday plant is a giant leak bill.

With production stopped, measure leak load by pump-up test (time to fill the receiver) or use an ultrasonic detector to tag leaks. Industry rule of thumb: untagged plants run 25–35% leak rate. Each 1 cfm of leak at 100 psi costs roughly $200/year at $0.10/kWh.

Capture HP, RPM, service factor, voltage, and NEMA efficiency class (Standard, Energy Efficient, Premium, IE3, IE4). Older Standard-class motors above 25 HP running 6,000+ hours/year are usually the strongest premium-motor replacement candidates — and most utilities rebate them.

Check whether ovens, batch furnaces, and curing chambers actually shut down or setback between shifts. "It takes too long to come back up" is the standard pushback — the audit should test that claim against measured warm-up time and propose interlock with the production schedule.

Required for ASHRAE Level 3. Build the model in eQUEST, EnergyPlus, or equivalent and calibrate against the 24 months of utility data — CV(RMSE) under 15% monthly is the ASHRAE Guideline 14 target. The model lets you stack interactive ECMs without double-counting savings.

For each ECM, list installed cost, annual energy savings (kWh and therms), demand reduction (kW), simple payback, and dollar savings at the plant's actual blended rate — not the headline residential rate. Stack measures in the order the customer would implement, so interactive effects (lighting reducing cooling load) aren't double-counted.

Check the serving utility's prescriptive and custom incentive programs. Most utilities require pre-approval before equipment is purchased — installing first and applying after disqualifies the project. Capture the rebate amount per ECM in the savings worksheet.

Submit the utility's pre-approval forms with quantity, model, and efficiency documentation per ECM. Track the application number — utilities reserve the funds against your application, and rebate budgets do run out late in the program year.