Energy Management Principles Questions and Answers

Answer: A

A motor or a chiller bought on capital cost alone locks in its consumption for a decade or more, and specifying an efficiency requirement in the enquiry is far easier than arguing after the order. Life cycle cost is the appropriate basis.

Answer: B

An operator who sets the furnace air or the compressor pressure affects consumption more than any analysis does, so the training obligation follows the significance of the use rather than the job title. Records of that competence are part of the system.

Answer: C

A whole workforce needs to know that energy matters and what behaviour is expected; a small number need the skill to adjust a control loop. Confusing the two produces either untrained operators or expensive training for people who need only the message.

Answer: D

Switching off idle plant and correcting set points costs almost nothing and shows a result within a month, which is what persuades a board to fund the projects that need money. Their savings are real but usually smaller than those of the capital measures.

Answer: A

An operator knows which machine idles through the night shift and which vent has blown for months, and no analysis will find it from the outside. The scheme's value depends entirely on suggestions being answered rather than merely collected.

Answer: B

Watching a small number of indicators against their expected values catches drift while it is still small, which is the whole purpose. Metering everything and looking at none of it is a common and expensive substitute.

Answer: C

Correct answer: conforms to its own requirements and is effective

An internal audit asks two questions: does the system meet the requirements it has set for itself and those of the standard, and is it actually working. It is not a search for the largest possible saving, and it does not judge instruments or tariffs except as they bear on those two questions.

Answer: D

Correct answer: the arrangements rather than the equipment

An energy audit looks at the plant - boilers, motors, compressors, insulation - and finds opportunities to save. An internal audit looks at the management system - whether reviews happen, whether records exist, whether responsibilities are assigned and acted on. One asks whether the plant is efficient; the other asks whether the organisation is capable of keeping it so.

Answer: A

Its purpose is to decide whether the policy, the objectives and the resources remain adequate, which only the people who set them can do. Delegating it to the energy manager reduces it to a self-assessment with no authority to change anything.

Answer: B

It is a departure from what the system requires - an unperformed check, an unrecorded competence, an uncontrolled set point - and it calls for correction and for action on its cause. A disappointing saving is a performance question rather than a nonconformity.