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Jefferson
County School District (Denver, CO) Has High Praise for the
ELITE
Written
by Kyla Merwin Cheney, February 2004
Featured in
Utility Products Showcase magazine, April 2004
In the chilly hills of
Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, Jeffco Public School District had a problem.
They were spending too much money on energy bills. Combined with that, they
didn’t have the additional budget to hire an energy management staff. In
response, Jeffco senior management devised an innovative solution. They took
four teachers out the classroom and, with the appropriate training, made them
Certified Energy Managers.
This team of four
was promptly charged with the mission of reducing energy costs at the school
district. Realizing that they couldn’t manage what they hadn’t
measured, they turned to DENT Instruments, headquartered in Bend, Oregon. With
the simplicity and low cost of DENT’s ELITE™ energy data logger and
accompanying software, they were able to data-trend precise energy use, right
down to ‘when’ and ‘where’. In addition to providing
critical data, DENT’s ELOG ™ software provided management with
practical analysis tools in the form of charts and graphs.
Marv Roemer, Supervisor of
Maintenance for Jeffco Public Schools, said the energy management program has
been a tremendous success, though it was met with initial skepticism, both from
principals and HVAC technicians. “They were a little paranoid about
changing the status quo; about teachers coming in and telling [the technicians]
how to run their equipment,” Roemer reported. “They definitely
changed their attitude. It’s become the way we do business with energy
maintenance.” Further, it has inspired new programs. “People
are looking at other ways of saving energy, bringing other ideas
forward.”
The energy
management team has also served a vital role in educating school staff on ways
to save energy. “They are as much educators and managers,” said
Roemer. “They reinforce the fact that you can’t have units running
all night long.”
DENT’s ELITE
™ data logger has enabled Jeffco to check accuracy of utility billing,
measure electrical consumption of kitchen equipment, verify electrical savings
of lighting upgrades, measure total loads of HVAC equipment, and track
electrical panels for power interruptions. This data helped the management team
reduce waste, streamline operations, and track ongoing improvements, resulting
in lower out-of-pocket expenses.
Heavy on the minds of the
energy management team was the responsibility to use the taxpayers’ money
wisely, and to gain credibility in their community. Said Jim Faes, Energy
Manager at Jeffco, “We have proved ourselves to be good stewards with the
tax dollars we spend on utilities.” Said Roemer, “These four
guys have saved this district so much money that it’s hard to fathom what
would happen without them.”
DENT Instruments, a world recognized leader of
instrumentation for data collection, has continued to refine and advance their
ELITE™ product line. The ELITEpro™, for example, makes
energy measurement, data trending and sub-metering easy.
This
instrument, and accompanying software, helps pinpoint electric usage and
quantify consumption by measuring, storing, and analyzing Volts, Amps, Watts,
Volt-Amps (VA), Volt-Amps reactive (VAR), Kilowatts (kW), Kilowatt Hours (kWh),
Power Factor and harmonics, encompassing a total of 144 different measurement
parameters.
The
ELITEpro™ can monitor up to four single-phase loads or two
three-phase Delta loads, or one three-phase Wye load. It includes
four channels of current (0-6,000 amps), and three channels of voltage (0-600V
ac or dc). The ELITEpro™ also offers some power quality
features such as the ability to view voltage, current, and power
waveforms. It will calculate harmonics from DC through the 63rd then report total
harmonic distortion (THD), crest factor and peak voltage &
current.
The
ELITEpro™ can be mounted anywhere and with its wide range of
recording intervals and a storage capacity of up to 100,000 records, is ideal
for both short-term projects or long-term studies. Easy to use,
Windows™ based software graphically displays recorded data, performs
analyses and allows automatic, remote data collection via Internet, wired or
wireless LAN systems, or telephone modems. Data is easily exported to
popular spreadsheets and databases for special analyses. The
ELITEpro™ has been an instrument of choice utilized by most
electric utilities across the country for a number of years. |
