Remote energy audits could rival those from on-site visits

Utilities often find it hard to help commercial-building operators analyze and reduce their energy consumption, because on-site audits are costly and time-consuming. Using analytics to crunch building consumption data, on the other hand, could make it easier for energy companies to help commercial customers cut their electricity use and bills.

FirstFuel Software says its Rapid Building Assessment (RBA) platform could deliver those benefits. And two recent independent tests have validated the platform’s effectiveness.

The Cadmus Group, an energy engineering and consulting firm, field-tested FirstFuel’s platform and compared the results to those from an on-site audit conducted according to ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) standards. According to FirstFuel, the analysis showed its RBA platform could:

• Produce recommendations consistent with results from an on-site audit;
• Remotely generate consumption details within 10 percent of on-site calculations;
• Generate findings quicker and more cheaply than on-site audits.

Another test, this one conducted by Germany’s Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, concluded FirstFuel’s platform has “the potential to be a valuable engine for the large scale benchmarking of buildings and to identify energy-saving opportunities without on-site audits.”

Formerly called iblogix, FirstFuel Software has also secured a $2.4 million initial round of financing led by Battery Ventures and Nth Power. The company plans to use the funds to scale up and speed up adoption of its RBA platform.