DMI's experience in understanding energy consumption and facility operation allows us to provide a full menu of energy analysis and simulation services for commercial, industrial, and institutional clients. Depending on the project and scope, analysis may take the form of a spreadsheet temperature-bin model, long-term metering, or whole-building hourly simulation.

DMI has a full complement of analysis strategies and software tools to analyze and optimize energy performance for your exisitng facility or new project. As our primary focus is on energy consumption as opposed to sales, installation or other contracting, we're able to approach any energy problem with a uniquely informed and unbiased eye toward efficiency. A partial list of our services is provided below:

Cost-Benefit Analysis: DMI provides first-year energy savings analysis for energy efficiency measures combined with first-cost estimation to determine cost-benefit and simple payback assessment. Measures may be analyzed individually or combined to determine interactive effects. These cost-benefit analyses typically provide the framework for utility energy efficiency rebate applications. Learn more about utility rebate programs here.

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis: Similar to cost-benefit analysis, life-cycle analysis takes the extra steps to estimate the total savings of a given energy efficiency opportunity over the expected service life of the equipment. This analysis may include first-cost estimation, annual savings, expected persistence of savings, maintenance costs and other factors.

Spreadsheet Analysis: Analysis and simulation often make use of spreadsheet models and calculations to determine energy savings of various energy efficiency measures. DMI has developed special tools within the spreadsheet environment for analyzing specific systems such as pumps, air compressors, cooling towers, and other HVAC and industrial processes.

Bin-Model Analysis: Often, energy consumption and savings may be related to the effects that outside air conditions have on loads or equipment performance. Bin-model analysis takes these effects into account by isolating energy calculations for varying weather conditions and combining these calculations with typical weather data obtained for the project site, thus improving the accuracy of the savings estimate.

Hourly Simulation: DMI employs sophisticated software modeling tools, such as DOE-2, eQuest, and others, to provide hourly simulation for advanced projects. Whole-building and hourly simulation is particularly suited to larger projects where multiple energy efficiency measures may interact to affect overall savings. For example, an efficient lighting measure may reduce the load on a chilled water system, which would affect the savings for an efficient chiller measure. Additionally, hourly simulation is also necessary for projects having advanced control strategies or complicated time-based load profiles, such as intermittent occupancy or process conditions.

Pre- and Post-Metering and PowerMap: DMI provides pre-metering services to document energy consumption and load profiles for equipment with potential energy savings opportunities. Pre-metering improves the savings estimate, which in turn improves the accuracy of cost-benefit, payback, and utility rebate calculations.

Post-metering services often provide verification of anticipated savings and offer the opportunity to tune processes and operation more finely to increase energy performance.

PowerMap analysis is a specialized tool developed by DMI to visually assess actual whole-building energy consumption for existing facilities to identify problem areas and areas of opportunity for energy savings. Learn more about Metering and PowerMap here.

Peer Review: In addition to developing our own calculations, DMI provides peer reviews of analyses performed by other firms. The goal of these reviews is to provide professional, courteous, and constructive feedback that improves the assumptions and methodologies that are being used to tackle a given problem.