Energy Audits of Local Government Buildings (Louisiana DNR)

Abstract

This paper describes innovations instituted in an ongoing energy auditing program for local government buildings in Louisiana. In order to provide as many audits as possible with the funds available, a two-pronged effort was initiated to reduce the cost of conducting audits and generating audit reports while maintaining high quality results: (1) senior mechanical engineering students were employed and trained as auditors and (2) a microcomputer-based software system was developed to automate much of the analysis, economic decision making, and composition required for the audit reports. In addition to providing a valuable educational tool for the students and a streamlined cost effective means of generating audit reports for local governments, this project can potentially improve the energy efficiency by as much as 1,768 MMBTU/yr per building. These numbers are extrapolated from the results of this program performed in 1986 before the development and use of the microcomputer-based software system.