CINCINNATI - Pathian, an energy consultancy specializing in the optimization of complex mechanical systems, announced it has developed Component Level Benchmarking™ (CLB™), the world’s first energy benchmarking system with the proven ability to factor out the impact of variations in weather on energy consumption.  

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Building Alliance, more than $200 billion are spent each year to power commercial buildings in the U.S. Expanding on Pathian’s verifiable energy-reduction successes, CLB has the potential to help the commercial business sector reduce its energy consumption by up to 30 percent, which could equate to up to $60 billion in energy spending savings annually.

“CLB uses our Pathian Curves to analyze how complex HVAC mechanical systems consume energy,” said Dan Buchanan, president of Pathian Incorporated.

What sets CLB apart is that it measures the rate of energy consumption of a mechanical system by holding the time variable constant to typically less than one hour. This allows Pathian to overcome the impact of differences in weather conditions over the time period of analysis. The end result is an energy benchmarking system that is indifferent to weather or the geographical location of the energy system being measured. This new benchmarking process has major advantages over traditional benchmarking methods commonly used to measure and verify energy consumption habits. 

The first major advantage is the speed. By factoring out the impact of weather conditions, CLB can directly calculate and compare energy benchmarks of any peer energy system in the world. This robust attribute allows Pathian to calculate energy benchmarks with a fraction of the processing power required by traditional benchmarking methods, making it the ideal solution for big data energy consumption benchmarking applications. 

The speed of the Component Level Benchmarking process can also be used to monitor and predict utility demand requirements in real time for cities, counties and states, thus lowering the volatility and risk created by energy commodity traders, and allows utilities to more efficiently manage their national power grids.

A second advantage is the ability to create unlimited amount of logical peer groups on a worldwide level. This allows Pathian to accurately measure and compare all types of complex mechanical systems, equipment and constituent equipment components, regardless of their location. More impressively, Pathian can also benchmark and compare the control methods used to operate peer equipment or mechanical systems down to the component level, no matter where they are located.  

The most important advantage of CLB is its ability to create mechanical system performance indexes that apply worldwide to all equipment and their components. This is a game changer for the commercial building energy management industry. These indexes allow Pathian to compare the energy efficiency of any mechanical system or component to a known standard of performance. This makes the benchmarking process actionable and energy savings verifiable. Commercial building owners will know exactly where they stand, know precise steps required to improve to a known standard of efficiency, and the monetary gain they will enjoy if they take action.   

Finally, the benchmarking process will allow banking institutions to monetize commercial building energy efficiency projects with lower risk. They will be able to accurately assess the potential financial gains of the energy efficiency projects and have a tool to manage the projects from the cradle to the grave.

“Going beyond all these benefits, the economic impact of these energy savings can stimulate the economy and create thousands of new jobs for Americans,” said Buchanan.  

About Pathian, Inc.

Cincinnati-based Pathian Inc. is a technical and engineering consultancy with specialized expertise in mechanical system optimization. Working in partnership with the industry’s largest and most respected controls companies, its goal is to minimize the energy cost for owners of large, complex facilities while maximizing the air quality and comfort for their occupants. To learn more about Pathian Analysis, go to www.pathian.com for a free assessment of how your facility’s energy consumption compares with that of your peers and your industry’s best performers.