Level 1 Screening Analysis
The first step in a Level 1 Screening Analysis is collecting data on your facility and its energy use. A walkthrough checklist can assist you. If all of the data requested in the walkthrough checklist is not readily available, a minimum of 12 months of electric and fuel bills as well as 12 months of steam use (where applicable) should be collected. (Note that bills for both delivery service for gas and electric and the commodity should be obtained - two sets of bills for each utility service.)
The U.S. DOE Northwest Clean Energy Application Center can help you (at no charge) to analyze the results of your data collection. A Level 1 Screening Analysis is a relatively quick analysis that is based on annual average costs, that uses estimated load profiles, and that uses other "rules of thumb" to estimate the project's viability. The output normally includes savings, installed costs, and simple paybacks. The accuracy is usually within 30-50%.
If you would like to do the Level 1 Screening Analysis yourself, the following tool can help:
If you are working on your own, now might be a good time to do some background research on CHP. Again, we will be glad to assist you in this area and answer any questions that might come up.
After completing this step, we encourage you to go forward with a Level 2 Conceptual & Financial Analysis.