DENT Helps University Claim $6.5 Million Rebate
Written by Kyla Merwin Cheney, April 2005
Featured in American School & University magazine, May 2005

When the local electric company said, “turn off your lights,” the University of Washington listened. Seattle City Light recently required the major university to reduce its overall energy consumption, and it offered big rewards for doing so.

The problem: UW staff had to implement an energy conservation program, and be able to demonstrate their accomplishments in reducing their use of electricity.

John Leaden, maintenance coordinator for the UW, came out of retirement to support the university’s new program. “We implemented several projects to meet Seattle City Light’s requirements to reduce energy consumption,” said Leaden. Renovation projects included replacing T-12 fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with T-8 lamps and energy efficient electronic ballasts. They also installed adjustable speed drives on pumps and motors in major ventilation systems, as well as making HVAC control upgrades.

The university then had to verify that they had installed the projects they’d committed to, and more importantly, that they had saved the electricity they’d predicted. “We used almost everything in DENT Instruments’ product line to verify savings in lighting applications,” said Leaden. The ElitePro™ energy logger, for example, interfaced directly with lighting systems in targeted campus buildings. The university continues to use DENT’s ElitePro™ to monitor electrical consumption of various lighting and motor applications.

“What DENT provides is a very easy-to-use recording medium,” explained Leaden. “All we have to do is download the data into an Excel spreadsheet to see the consumption profile.” That profile allows Leaden to compare actual consumption with operating schedules to detect variations and recommend changes to control programs or upgrades of equipment or maintenance procedures.

The pay off: The university’s ongoing electric use had been dramatically reduced, along with the associated energy costs. And, as an added bonus, Seattle City Light rebated $6.5 million to the University for their conservation projects.

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.