Energy Auditor

Dan Boudreau

While the rest of his friends were slogging through their first year of university, Dan Boudreau was taking time off. During his two-year break, he worked a number of what he calls dead-end jobs, earning minimum wage. "That experience was enough of a wake-up call to prompt me to apply for university.” Five years later, Dan had his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Brunswick.

Today, Dan works as a project manager with Enerplan, an energy management company based in Moncton, New Brunswick. As a part of his job, Dan regularly conducts energy audits. "Over 90 percent of the time, we conduct energy audits to help our clients reduce their own energy costs.”

The most important starting point before the energy audit contract is even won is looking over the proposed client’s energy bills. By doing this, Dan can compare the building or structure to a similar benchmark building and determine how much energy the building is using compared to the average energy expenditure.

Then Dan heads out to the site to conduct a visual inspection. On-site, Dan can be found crawling over pipes, crawling under ductwork, and generally trying to get a good feel for what he can do to save the company energy. "I just love getting on my hands and knees and seeing how a building works.” Dan also takes several different energy measurements to determine what areas, such as windows and doors, are losing the most energy. Once his inspection is complete, he heads back to the office, where he writes up the proposal.

When the contract is won, Dan researches a variety of solutions to reduce a building’s energy emissions. Usually, this can be completed at his desk and involves referring to similar projects he’s worked on, as well as researching new and innovative ways to conserve energy. Often the solutions are simple. "We’ve seen a lot of offices where the air conditioner and the heater are running at the same time, essentially fighting each other energy-wise.” In this case, Dan recommends that his client install an energy management control system (EMCS), a computer-operated system that can control everything from the heating, lighting, and air conditioning in a building. "An EMCS ensures that a building’s systems—heating, ventilation, air conditioning, etc.—are running as efficiently as possible.”

Despite offering this type of solution, Dan says people are apprehensive when they see an energy auditor in their office. "A lot of people think that we are going to reduce the temperature and leave them freezing in their office.” Energy auditing is about more than lowering the temperature to reduce energy costs. It’s about figuring out the best, most efficient ways to use energy: "Anything we can do to reduce our energy consumption would go a long way to preserving the environment, as well as save us money.”