Utility Tracking and Benchmarking Blog | WegoBlog

Nationwide, approximately 33% of all housing stock is rental units, and in Boulder, CO, rental units represent almost 50% of all housing.  With such a significant portion of its housing rented out to tenants, multifamily residential buildings represent a tremendous opportunity for building owners in the city to reduce their energy use and cut down on monthly bills.  We’ve written before about the opportunities lying untapped in multifamily energy efficiency, now let’s take a look at what the folks in CO have come up with.

It seems like not a day goes by without people in our office gathering around the proverbial water-cooler (which in our case is a non-proverbial foosball table) and discussing the Olympics. This got us thinking, and blogging, about how we could reward our customers for their energy and money savings, as if the savings themselves weren't reward enough. So we created the WegOlympics and combed through our database of almost 10,000 buildings to pick the winners. Our Opening Ceremony, in which we chronicled the brief history and meteoric rise of WegoWise through interpretive energy tracking, did not get as much media coverage as the boondoggle in London, but we are hoping that our Medal Ceremony can turn the tables in our favour. Based on a similar judging system as the Men's Gymnastics Floor Routine, we have hand-picked the winners of this year's 2012 WegOlympics. Here are your winners. You have made your country very proud.

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Sean, Lily, Catherine, Casey and Bert.

With so many properties in need of energy efficiency upgrades, it's often difficult to decide where to start.  Energy efficiency program administrators have the additional burden of trying to decide which projects deserve funding.

Gyms are the epitome of inefficiency. Lights blaze upwards of 18 hours a day. Most exercise machines, television sets, fans, and stereos are left on whether in use or not. The average treadmill uses around 1500 watts -- the equivalent of 15 incandescent light bulbs!  Stationary bikes use a mere 10% of their energy to run the machine and dissipate the rest as heat.  When people run, bike or elliptical to burn their own energy, they require incredible additional energy input to operate the machines.  So much energy going to waste!  What’s an eco-conscious exerciser to do during the cold months?

Reducing your development’s utility consumption obviously improves your building’s available cash flow, putting more money in your pocket each month.  But what are the bigger implications for the value of your property in the market? 

Let’s take a sample development:

Global Green...

is the American branch of Green Cross International, a group based in Sweden thats mission is to promote sustainability and, to put it their words, "reconnect humanity with the environment." Global Green's Devin Lowell, WegoWise's first guest blogger, wrote this article for us:

United Housing: Conserving Water and Saving Money 

Last week we wrote about water performance in multifamily buildings and mentioned the deep savings opportunities around water conservation. This week we want to highlight a progressive building owner who took the time to figure out which of their buildings were performing poorly, get a water audit and then enact the recommendations of the audit. 

Profitable Results and Real Energy Savings

Last year, the Worcester Housing Authority in Massachusetts made some big changes.