The Rebate Check That Came From a Utility Bill

A Wheaton office building. 22,000 square feet. Occupied for 11 years, well-managed, no major deferred maintenance.

When the property manager sat down with an energy auditor last April, the expectation was modest: maybe some LED retrofit recommendations and a modest rebate.

What the audit turned up: an HVAC system running 18% less efficiently than it should have been due to dirty coil surfaces and an economizer that hadn't been functioning correctly for at least two seasons. Combined with an aging lighting package, the property was leaving roughly $14,000 per year on the table in utility costs — and qualified for $11,400 in combined ComEd and Peoples Gas rebates.

The rebate check took eight weeks. The efficiency improvements took three days of scheduled work. The operational savings began immediately.

1) Request the audit before program budgets run dry
ComEd's commercial audit program is free for qualifying properties. Requests are taking longer to schedule right now as summer demand peaks — the sooner you call, the sooner you're on the calendar.

2) Pull this month's utility bill next to last July's
Year-over-year comparison at peak cooling season is the clearest signal you'll get all year. A jump with no change in occupancy or hours is the first thing an auditor will want to see.

3) Cross-reference your HVAC service history
The most common audit finding is equipment that was serviced but never optimized — units "working" at 15–20% below rated efficiency due to dirty coils, calibration drift, or miscalibrated controls. Bring your service records to the conversation.

The improvements were all operational: HVAC recommissioning, coil cleaning, economizer recalibration, and LED replacements in the parking structure and common corridors. Total work: about $3,100. ComEd rebate: $2,400. Net cost: $700 and ongoing savings of roughly $8,000 per year.

The lesson isn't that every property has this opportunity — it's that most properties haven't looked for it recently. An energy audit doesn't commit you to anything. It just tells you what's there.

Q: “Is it worth doing ENERGY STAR benchmarking if it's not required for our suburban property?”

Yes — for two reasons.

First, benchmarking gives you a comparison point. Without it, you're managing utility costs in a vacuum. With it, you can tell whether your property is performing at the 40th percentile or the 70th — and that tells you how much improvement opportunity exists.

Second, lenders and investors increasingly ask for ENERGY STAR data when evaluating commercial properties. If you're refinancing, selling, or bringing in new partners in the next few years, having benchmarking history positions the property better than properties without it.

The EPA's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool is free and takes about 90 minutes to set up for a single property. That's a low bar for information that has real asset value.

We keep this brief: dirty rooftop equipment costs money. Clean equipment runs more efficiently. That's an energy and maintenance argument, not just a cosmetic one.

If your HVAC vendor is coming out this spring for recommissioning and hasn't mentioned coil cleaning or RTU exterior condition, that's a gap in the service — and it's one we can fill.

Recurring Maintenance Programs

Spring Commercial Offer

Free exterior estimate — mention HVAC efficiency for rooftop assessment.

Know a property owner or asset manager who should be looking at their utility bills more carefully? Forward them this issue.