Lynchburg Business

Valley Energy Consultants-A Fresh Look at Saving Commercial Energy Costs

Issue: July 2010 by Jennifer Schmidt in Inside The Magazine, Technology

Energy efficiency has been a hot topic for quite some time. Typing it into Google garners over 31 million hits, and from the steps of state legislatures to newsstands, saving money and “going green” with energy is a top priority for Americans.

One company at the forefront of energy efficient technology is Valley Energy Consultants (VEC), a company primarily located in southwest Virginia and headquartered in Roanoke.

Essentially, VEC wants to “shake the world” as co-founder and now co-partner, John Cook says of the company. Along with co-partner, Jack Helms, Cook began VEC a year and a half ago after working as a business developer in the food industry for 32 years. Now, VEC has 12 full-time consultants who are located throughout the New River Valley.

The company’s stated purpose, to “provide clients with all the alternatives to become energy efficient, energy self-sufficient and environmentally conscience,” is carried out in a variety of ways, and Valley Energy offers cost-effective options for companies and homeowners alike.  

While working between consultations in the field, Cook spoke about a new dehumidifying system which will be launched to retail markets in the coming months.

“If you have 90 percent humidity one day, and 30 percent humidity the next, the day with lower humidity will be an easier day for your air conditioner to cool your home,” he said. “Likewise, by lowering the amount of moisture in a refrigerator that drastically reduces the price of cooling.”

By lowering the humidity level, the system will save energy and prolong the life of food, thus cutting resources lost on both energy costs and wasted food. The system was created by a prominent chef Cook declined to name, and though the initial impetus was food safety, there are numerous economical benefits as well.

“Any hospital could benefit and save money with this,” Cook said, mentioning hotels, breweries, restaurants, schools and homeowners as other businesses and individuals that could benefit from this new technology.

One of Cook’s personal passions—children’s hospitals—is a venue he would like to see benefit from the dehumidifying system due to the safety and monetary benefits.

“It will extend the life and freshness of food products in a refrigerator,” Cook explained. “It’s a phenomenal product that will absorb odors and unwanted gases.”

The dehumidifier will be so effective in absorbing odors that a freshly cut onion and a newly sliced watermelon could be placed on the same refrigerator shelf, and neither of them would smell or taste like the other when checked a day later.

“And they could both be unwrapped!” Cook added. “This is my personal opinion, but it is 10,000 times more effective than baking soda, and I use that myself. But this will really, really increase the safety and flavor of food.”

A system also working to regulate the energy efficiency of refrigerators is eCube, which Cook says could work alongside the dehumidifier to provide even greater savings. Typical refrigerators do not maintain consistent temperatures, resulting in wasted energy and higher costs to consumers. The wasted energy results because “air temperature rises faster than the temperature of food.”

VEC evaluates and installs commercial refrigerators with eCubes, which better regulate the air cycles used to keep food cool, thus consistently maintaining food temperatures with less energy production. The science behind the eCube is environmentally-friendly by reducing CO2 emissions and economically appealing by cutting energy costs.

But the eCube is not the only technology VEC sells that cuts costs.

“One of VEC’s greatest systems is the LED lighting,” Cook said.

This system, launched in January of this year, can cut lighting expenses by up to 90 percent in a warehouse or industrial building.

“It’s a two-fold benefit,” Cook said. “Energy efficiency is increased, but also, the environmental impact is substantial.”

He notes that old lighting fixtures, such as those using mercury and phosphorous, will no longer threaten the environment, and LED lighting also requires significantly less maintenance.

“In Danville, there are two guys who only replace street lights; that’s all they do,” Cook remarked. “These guys will now be available for other tasks because the LED lights will work not just for a year or two—the same equipment will work for many years.”

LED lighting offers many benefits, but it is primarily recognized for reducing electricity costs, lasting up to 80,000 hours and providing a reduced but more natural type of light.

VEC designed a model for outfitting commercial buildings with lighting systems that exclusively use LED bulbs. VEC consultants assess the cost and energy usage of current lighting systems through a detailed evaluation of the quantity and type of lamps, wattages and hours of usage that comprise a lighting system. Based on that information, VEC then estimates project costs and the return on investment.

“I recently did a site survey on a 300,000 square foot facility where we will replace all of the mercury tubes and cut their lighting expenses by 60 to 70 percent. It is a very attractive return on investment. We have had some great success with the systems so far,” Cook said, further mentioning a recent project where company owners saw their energy costs plummet from $9,500 a month to $1,200.

In the near future, Cook says VEC will be coupling solar power with the LED systems.

“We could easily include the solar, but it’s not a necessity for the systems; LED greatly reduces demand for energy and makes renewable systems more applicable,” Cook explained.

In addition to the refrigeration and LED advances that VEC is making, they are also installing a system called KVAR, which is a type of Power Factor Correction Device (PFCD). This system regulates and controls the amount of electricity used by any particular circuit system. Much like the eCube maintains consistent air temperature cycles in refrigerators, KVAR “reduces the amount of non-productive current in an electrical system,” Cook said. “KVAR stores and refeeds reactive energy back into the system, so instead of being lost as heat, it is fed back into the system.”

PFCDs like KVAR can be beneficial for businesses and homes alike because they greatly increase the amount of energy used versus energy wasted. A typical household has a power factor of 0.77 when a 1.0 reading represents 100 percent energy maximization. With a device like KVAR, a power factor usually increases to 0.97 or 0.98.

“We are very selective with who we sell KVAR to because we don’t sell to someone who doesn’t need it,” Cook said of the system. “If they don’t have enough energy generated, we can’t sell it to them because it won’t benefit them. With multiple heat pumps it could benefit a homeowner—it just has to be the right candidate. We believe in making the customer happy.”

To date, VEC has installed KVAR units in 40 to 50 homes.

Currently, VEC has consultants who are also working in Kentucky, Florida and the Carolinas. Clients who have commissioned Valley Energy for work include Roanoke City and County Schools, Pepsi, Disney, Starbucks Coffee, hotel chains, clothing distributors and many other recognized brands. For more information about any of the systems mentioned or to request a consultation for your business or home, visit www.valleyenergyconsultants.com.