“Though we’ve done audits for mostly companies in the Grand Rapids area, we’re trying to do more audits for places up north because we believe we can help with their energy and help them better manage their resources,” said Goto. “I used to work up north and there wasn’t such a push for energy efficiency. We should target them because they usually spend more than they should.”

Goto said that he’s seen other companies try to do energy audits and fail because some of them may be trying to sell a unit, where his company is getting paid soley to come in, take measurements, do the math and give solutions.

“Charlevoix faired pretty well,” Goto said. “I’ve seen some better and I’ve seen some worse. Charlevoix has a lot of older systems in their buildings, but they’re well-maintained so they’re holding up pretty well.”

U.S. Energy Engineers put together a 30 page report of their findings. The report was developed to research ways for the city to save on escalating energy costs.

A few of the solutions Goto’s engineers suggested were to do a thermo-stress analysis on the pipe system at the water plant. Another suggestion included putting lighting sensors up in the ski-lodge. “This is a $25 piece of equipment that could save the city a few hundred dollars a year,” Goto said. “Also, you don’t need 1,000 watt bulbs in there. That’s just too much.” 

The report makes suggestions for many areas to have occupancy and daylight sensors in many rooms, because otherwise, the lights in those rooms are left on all day long with nobody even in them.

The U.S. Energy Engineers also gave a variety of options for conserving energy in the general boiler and hot water systems at the water filtration plant.

“The city certainly benefited from the audit. It raised our awareness of energy saving strategies and techniques,” said Rob Straebel, Charlevoix City Manager. “The things we get out of this audit are things that will help inform us on making the right investments. The report will let us know how much money we have to spend to make money.”

Straebel got the idea for an energy audit from a conference he attended from the Michigan Municipal League about ways to cut energy costs. “I just called around to other municipalities and they informed me that they (U.S. Energy Engineers) had the best price for the service,” he said.

Straebel and other staff members felt that it was important for city council to discuss the information in the audit because many of the recommendations could be part of the proposed expenditures for the 2009-10 yearly budget.

“Looking at the report and the money we need to spend, it should take us about two years to break even and re-cooperate the costs on most of the things, like lighting,” said Straebel.

According to Straebel, it cost the city around $3,000 for the audit. The audit brought six to eight engineers in from Grand Rapids for about a day and a half to analyze the four major buildings in the city.

“It’s a great service and I would recommend it to any group or business to go ahead and do this,” Straebel said. “It’s not just a smart thing to go through with from an economic standpoint, but it’s a good thing for a city to go through with to become more conscious of their own carbon footprint.”