Equipment Loan Program introduces user-friendly diagnostic kit

With the inexpensive, easy-to-use tools in the new diagnostic kit, utilities won't need to assign electrical engineers to solve minor energy problems.

Thanks to the computer revolution, technology often becomes smaller, less expensive and easier to use as it advances. This progression applies to the set of affordable and highly useable tools in the Equipment Loan Program's new diagnostic kit.

The eight pieces in the kit cost about $4,000 total, compared to $26,000 for a single, high-end infrared camera, for example. Better yet, you don't have to be an engineer to use the tools—a minimal amount of training is all that is needed. "These are tools that any utility could afford to own," said Energy Services Manager Ron Horstman. "We hope our customers will use the kits to take diagnostic testing and energy audits to the next level."

Right tools for smaller jobs

Applications range from monitoring a single appliance's power consumption to performing a basic energy audit on a home or small business, said Equipment Loan Manager Gary Hoffmann. "It doesn't make sense to tie up one $6,000 piece of equipment, and an electrical engineer's time, if the member services manager can solve the problem with a simple power meter," he explained.

The idea for the kit occurred to Hoffmann at a Western customer meeting in New Mexico when a customer asked about borrowing load-monitoring equipment to test a remote well for leaking. "That's the perfect application for the Watts Up?," Hoffman said.

Watts Up? is a simple power meter that can calculate the amount of electricity a small system or appliance is consuming to determine monthly energy costs. The Equipment Loan Program stocks a range of power meters, from the consumer-friendly Watts Up? and Kill-a-Watt to complex units designed to monitor incidents on industrial and utility systems.

Chosen for easy use, versatility

Power meters aren't the only diagnostic tools that come in a wide range of capabilities and complexity. Infrared cameras run the gamut, too, from the highly sensitive FLIR P-45 to the Extech i-5 compact camera in the diagnostic kit. This low-resolution camera can be used to detect a variety of problems including building envelope deficiencies; faults in heating and cooling systems; problems in motors, fans and bearings or overheating electrical panel components. The photos can be downloaded to a personal computer to include in reports to customers.

"The Extech is not difficult to operate—it only has a few buttons, and the instructions are in the kit," Hoffmann stated. "It's lightweight, handheld and easy-to-use, and takes accurate images of building-level systems."

In addition to the IR camera and the Watts Up? and Kill-a-Watt power meters, the kit includes:

• Lighting usage monitor – determines if lights are being left on, or if timers or sensors are turning lights on when a room is not in use.

• Magnetic field monitor – indicates if motors (such as irrigation pumps) are cycling on when they are not needed. The monitor does not require an electrical connection.

• Current meter – measures running time and energy use on air conditioners, water heaters and other systems that cannot be unplugged.

• Circuit breaker finder – tests outlets for proper wiring and functioning, and locates the outlet's circuit breaker.

• HVAC combo kit – contains a voltage meter, IR thermometer and thermocouples to troubleshoot problems on space-conditioning systems.

Customers weigh in

But that is only the beginning of what the diagnostic kit might eventually contain, and of how Western customers might use it. When Horstman previewed the kit at the Four Corners Utility Efficiency Exchange in August, customers suggested that a light meter be added to it. "That was a good idea we overlooked," Horstman admitted. 

Utilities showed plenty of interest in the kit, but concern, too, about how much training would be necessary to operate the equipment, Horstman recalled. Also, several utilities acknowledged that they were contracting their audits to outside vendors. "I pointed out that the kit gives utilities the opportunity to take control of the quality and detail their audits provide," he said. "An audit, after all, is a roadmap that gives customers information to help them make better energy use decisions in the future."

The Home Energy Makeover workshop on the last day of the exchange made it clear that consumers want that type of information. The consumers who attended were even more enthusiastic about the kit than their power providers.  "I told them that they would have to contact their utilities about energy audits, and warned the utilities that they would be getting calls," said Horstman.

Hoffmann is assembling two kits to offer to customers later this year. The Equipment Loan Program will continue to accept suggestions about tools that might be useful additions, and we welcome stories about creative uses for the kit. Use the online request form to reserve the diagnostic kit. Contact Hoffmann, 720-962-7420, with tool suggestions and success stories. Or send your success stories to the Energy Services Bulletin editor if you would like to share your ideas with other Western customers.

Resources

Equipment Loan Program

Watts Up?

Equipment Loan power meters

FLIR P-45

Extech i-5 compact cameraFour Corners Utility Efficiency Exchange

Equipment Loan request form

People

Ron Horstman

Gary Hoffmann

Energy Services Bulletin editor

Related articles

Energy Services Bulletin, February 2007
Western's IR cameras help utilities, customers maintain efficiency

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