Energy efficiency and energy savings go hand-in-hand. A few of the many products that can offer end users these types of savings are highlighted here.

Consumers Energy is offering multifamily property owners free assessment of heating and cooling and water heating systems in common areas.

Top topics these days for people involved in the food retail sector are energy, sustainability, and compliance and how to discuss those with decision makers within that sector. Data plays a significant role in selling an energy project. Once the project is sold and installed, we need to deliver proof of savings.

A company from Vermont called Freeaire Refrigeration has come up with a technology, according to the company, designed to reduce electrical consumption “by eliminating unnecessary operation of every part of a system” and, for colder climates, adding an element that allows the use of cold outside air.

Three years ago, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) set out to achieve new efficiency goals for Standard 90.1. The association announced at its 2011 winter conference in January that it had been successful. It now attains site energy savings of 32.6 percent and energy cost savings of 30.1 percent without plug loads.

It is a familiar lament for those who work on supermarket refrigeration. There is a problem. The owner wants it fixed immediately. The technician can apply a quick fix, but that won’t deal with potential recurring problems - and the fact that the equipment may not be operating all that efficiently or even be all that up-to-date.

One of the technologies that has popped up in recent years is the motion (occupancy) sensor. This technology is designed to save energy costs beyond the traditional options of turning off lights and dialing down a thermostat. But can this technology find a place in the HVAC contracting world? Very likely, if it hasn’t already.

There have been two approaches to capturing the sun’s energy: photovoltaics, to turn sunlight into electricity, or solar thermal systems, to concentrate the sun’s heat to boil water to turn a turbine, or use it directly for hot water or heating. But there’s another approach that was sidelined because nobody found a way to harness it in a practical, economical way.