Smart Energy Management

Free Event for West Chester Business Owners

This free event was hosted by BLUER and the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce on April 20, 2010. It was a great success with interesting discussion amoung the 4 panelists, 9 energy exhibitors and about 40 audiance participants representing business in and around West Chester.

Panelists:

• Bill Ronayne - Brandywine Valley HVAC

  Bill talked about a recent geothermal installation in which an oil furnace was replaced by a geo unit in a 3,000 square feet facility. The customer used 678 gallons of fuel oil per year and used 555 kWh to run the oil furnace. His old AC unit used 3,499 kWh for cooling. His new Geo unit will use 1,476 kWh for cooling and 5,069 kWh for heating but a zero amount of oil.

• Rich Potocek - Mainline Solar

  Mainline Solar has installed a 20kW solar PV system for the Evergreen apartment complex on Gay St. The system will generate 22,600 kWh of electricity per year and reduce their electric bill by $4,000 per year and generate $6,000 in SRECs annually while reducing their carbon emissions by 1,234,800 lbs of CO2/yr.

• Byron Woodman - Community Energy

  Community Energy is committed to increasing the supply of sustainable, fuel-free energy and delivering real solutions to climate change in the form of new wind and solar power generation. Byron talked about The Hickman Senior Living Community which has committed to a variety of renewable energy initiatives to reduce their carbon foot-print.

• Paul Spiegel - Practical Energy Solutions

  Paul is an energy efficiency expert who has helped businesses, municipalities and school districts, including the West Chester Area School District, save thou-sands of dollars in energy costs. He profiled his experience with one local business that cut electricity costs by $60,000 (10% over several years) simply by optimizing HVAC controls and systems -- with no capital investment.

Exhibitors:

• Four Leaf Energy
• Great Valley Green Energy
• Altoonian Remodelers
• Aztec Solar Power
• Rushforth Solar Hot Water
• Suntricity Power
• Pniladelphia Independence
• Glacial Energy
• GroSolar

Panel discussions were moderated by BLUER member Scott Tornek

Mayor Carolyn Comitta gave some opening remarks

Student Challenge - The EPA awarded the West Chester Area School District $150,000 to make West Chester a Climate Showcase Community. As part of the program, the District will share its energy conservation success (14% electricity reduction; $250K yearly savings) with the West Chester business commu-nity and support 5 local commercial energy audits, which will become models for our community and the nation.