Text-Only Version
Deb Neuman, Director, Target
Technology Incubator: "The state of Maine has a great resource for
small businesses to help them with their energy costs and to reduce
energy consumption, and that's the Efficiency Maine program, and
their Web site is efficiencymaine.org. It's a terrific program. One
of the things that they'll do is come to your small business,
whether it's an existing small business or even if it's new
construction, and they'll perform what's called an energy audit.
Now, I have suggested that perhaps they change the name because the
word 'audit' gives most small business owners heartburn, but it's a
great thing--they'll come into your business, this costs you
nothing, and they'll go around and they'll look at ways you can
reduce your energy consumption and your energy costs. Things that
you may not have even thought of. For example, they told me that
there are now motion sensors for soda machines and other types of
vending machines, so when you walk up to the machine, it will turn
on and be ready to dispense your product, and when you walk away
from it, it shuts down. If it's a refrigerated machine, it will
maintain the certain required temperature when nobody's around, but
there's cool stuff like that available that they know of. They will
come into your place of business and say, "You could change this
here, there's lighting that we could put in here," and give you
complete recommendations as to how you can reduce your energy
consumption. Then it gets better. They offer rebates and incentives
to help you pay for that and they'll work with you. So, if you
install this energy-saving equipment, you can get some help
financially from Efficiency Maine to do that. Some of these
energy-efficient solutions may be more expensive than others, but
the payback will occur over time. Some of the payback you're going
to see immediately, some will be a longer payback period, but the
Efficiency Maine people are experts at this, and they can help you
figure out where's the best bang for your energy buck, if you will.
Where should we make that investment in becoming more energy
efficient, and what kind of return on that investment are we likely
to see and when."
