“Everyone should have an MREP energy audit! I would not have been able to do my REAP grant without them! Danielle was incredibly helpful in finding ways to save money, and getting maximum rebates to help me improve my energy savings. Not only was she insightful and spot-on with her knowledge of energy efficiency and ways to cut costs, she was fun to work with! She would call me up and say ‘I think I found some more money for you, send me your receipts for that!’ I will certainly continue to refer other friends and business owners to her, so they can find ways to save energy and save money!” – Claire Putnam, MD, Women’s Health Services, Bozeman

Dr. Claire Putnam purchased a building on 7^th Ave. in Bozeman and planned to remodel the building into a women’s clinic. The one-story building was built in 1940 for residential purposes and converted into commercial space several years later. It currently has an unfinished basement. The remodel was intended to improve the energy efficiency of the building while creating a comfortable space for the patients. The remodel included new windows, a completely updated HVAC system, all new LED lighting, upgraded insulation, and cosmetic upgrades on the exterior and interior.

Total Savings for the Project

This project will save over 14,000 kWh and 107,000 kBTUs per year. That is the equivalent of saving 1,410 gallons of gasoline! The project is outlined in the table below with each elements’ annual savings, cost, and simple payback. The simple payback uses the current utility rates to calculate the cost savings on an annual basis.

Item	Conservation Measure	Annual kBTU Savings (converted)	Annual Cost Savings	Projected Cost	Simple Payback (yrs)*	Potential Utility Funding
1.	Lighting LED Retrofit	45,788	$586	$1,090	1.09	$432.00
2.	Window Replacement	54,238	$466	$17,434	39.1	N/A
3.	Insulation Upgrade	51,885	$511	$4,716	9.23	$920.00
4.	HVAC Equipment Upgrade	35,083	$1,610	$15,176	9.43	$461.30
	Totals	186,994	$3,173	$38,416	11.5	$1,813

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HVAC Equipment

 

The new HVAC system includes an ENERGY STAR-rated furnace and air conditioner manufactured by Trane. The old system consisted of an older furnace (assumed rating at 78% efficiency) and a Bryant 10 SEER outdoor unit for cooling. The new furnace is 97.3% efficient with an electronically commutated motor (ECM) for the blower fan motor and a variable-speed drive (VFD) on the condensing unit. The new outdoor unit for cooling has an SEER of 18.

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Window Upgrades

The building contained 31 single-paned operable windows. Twenty-one of the windows were equipped with half a storm pane: half screen on the outside, six windows had full storm panes, and four windows had no storm pane at all. Many of the windows were cracked and the storm panes were not installed properly. This project included a full energy-efficient window replacement.

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Insulation Upgrades

The project also included increasing the insulation levels throughout the building. The above-grade walls and attic contained an estimated insulation value of R-11. The blown-in cellulose insulation in the attic was not spread evenly and there was no insulation in the roof structure. The basement exterior walls are concrete only with no insulation.

 

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Lighting Upgrades
The owner also replaced the halogen track lighting fixtures with new LED flat panel fixtures that are more energy efficient and provide a better quality of light, with a longer service life.

 

 

The C Sharps Arms building is located in Big Timber, Montana, and is used to produce custom firearms. The building is divided into two sections, the workshop and the retail/office space. The workshop is the largest section, accounting for approximately 11,100ft². The building has high ceilings throughout both the workshop and retail spaces, while the offices are standard height with storage above. The basement is used as a packaging area and shooting range to test the company’s products.

Workshop lighting was the main concern for both the management team and the craftsmen. Lighting consisted of (101) 8-foot, two-lamp T12 fluorescent fixtures and (16) 4-foot, two-lamp T12 fixtures. Only 26 of the 8-foot fixtures and nine of the 4-foot fixtures were working or had bulbs. The goal of the management team was to increase lighting in the work areas, while leaving the unused areas dim. There is a second building that had (6) 8-foot fixtures, of which only three were working. The office and retail lighting was also out-of-date, but this was a secondary concern to the workshop. With this type of situation, it was recommended to do a complete replacement of the light fixtures. The table below shows the recommended replacement fixtures.

 

Current Fixture	Number of Fixtures	Current Wattage	Replacement Fixture	Replacement Wattage	Watts Saved
Exterior Wall Packs	5	150	LED Wall Packs	30	120
4ft Fluorescent T12	79	80	T8 18W LED Tube	36	44
8ft Fluorescent T12	39	257	LED High Bay Fixture	119	138
CFL Floods	9	26	18W LED Flood	18	8
Halogen MR16	4	50	7.5 Watt LED	7.5	42.5

 

Based on these upgrades, this project was eligible for $7,575 through a utility lighting rebate program.  The rebates dropped the net project cost to $4,407. Annual energy cost savings was $2,391, for a simple payback of less than two years.

 

C Sharps Arms	Annual Bill Savings	Est. Project Cost	Est. Rebate	Net Cost	KWh Savings	kW Savings	Simple Payback
LED Conversion	$2,391	$11,982	$7,575	$4,407	18,373	8.9	1.84 years

A lighting-upgrade project is saving a senior living center in Butte significant lighting energy costs, while providing higher-quality lighting for its residents, staff, and visitors.

The Big Sky Senior Living complex consists of one main building and 12 cottages. The main building contains common areas, apartments, offices, kitchens, dining rooms, maintenance areas, parking garages, a memory care unit, a hairdressing shop, and a physical therapy center.

The Montana Resource Efficiency Program (MREP) performed a detailed energy audit for Big Sky Senior Living, selected the LED lighting, facilitated both the purchase of the lighting and the utility rebate process. Lighting at the complex ranged from metal halide bulbs in parking garage and exterior fixtures, to incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent lights in the interior fixtures. The new LED lighting is more energy-efficient and will provide a better quality of light, with a longer service life.

• LED Cost:$28,312
• Recycling Cost: $3,627
• Utility Incentives: $20,720
• Net Cost: $11,219
• Annual Bill Savings: $30,000
• Annual Energy Savings: 232,000 kWh
• Simple Payback with Energy Savings: Less than 6 months

Prior to the lighting conversion, Big Sky Senior Living used 731,612 kWh annually at a cost of $73,808, and 13,118 therms of natural gas annually at a cost of $9,038. As a day of service, a group of 15 Energy Corps volunteers and MREP engineers performed the complex-wide light bulb change-out and assisted in packing the 4,300 bulbs for recycling.

Future energy-efficiency potential at the complex includes boiler and hot-water pipe insulation; installing variable frequency drives (VFD) on fan motors of air-handling units, rooftop units, energy-recovery units, make-up air units, condensers, unit heaters, and AC units; installing variable frequency drives (VFD) on the pumps in the hydronic heating systems; installing energy-efficient air-conditioning units; and installing an energy-efficient air-condensing unit for the walk-in cooler and freezer.

 LED Conversion per Fixture Type

Current Fixture	Number of Bulbs	Current Wattage	Replacement Fixture	Replacement Wattage	Watts Saved
Parking Garage Lights	26	458	150-Watt LED	150	308
Parking Lot, Exterior, and Street Lighting	47	128	64-Watt LED	64	36
Fluorescent Tubes	1914	32	15-Watt LED	15	15
Incandescent	1703	60	9-Watt LED	9	51
Heat Lamps	300	100	9-Watt LED	9	91
Wall Packs	13	70	LED Wall Pack	12	58
Candelabra Bulb	29	28	5-Watt LED Candelabra	5	23
Vanity Bulbs	88	25	2.5-Watt LED	2.5	22
Halogen BR30	75	75	8-Watt LED	8	67
Halogen BR40	75	120	17-Watt LED	17	103