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Energy tune-ups can save farmers money

An energy consultant says farmers can benefit from tuning up their electrical equipment.  Kevin Weller from Focus on Energy tells Brownfield there are incentives for making dairy compressors more efficient. “We offer $40 per compressor tuned-up. Get it tuned up before the warm weather starts. A new offering we also came up with is an air compressor tune-up. We know a lot of these dairy farms have air compressors that are leaking and using more electricity than they need to. We offer $200 for a dairy air compressor tune-up.”

Weller says another big energy consumer on the farm is grain dryers, and this is the perfect time of year to make sure they are working efficiently. “Making sure the dryer is tuned up, making sure the plenum temperature is right, you’re not over-drying the crops, and it’s just something good so the dryer is ready when you want to be harvesting this fall.”

Weller says he’s still hearing about supply chain problems for grain dryers, so working on them at this time of year gives farmers more time to get any needed replacement parts.

Weller says Focus on Energy always has several incentives available for farmers to upgrade their lighting to qualifying LED replacements. “It’s very frustrating when a customer is doing a project and it’s not a DLC-listed (Design Light Consortium) lighting. If it’s not DLC-listed, we can’t offer an incentive so reach out to your energy advisor early with a make or model and we can verify that the light qualifies.”

Focus on Energy also offers incentives for upgrading barn fans. 

Weller spoke to Brownfield during the recent WPS Farm Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

AUDIO: Kevin Weller discusses the Focus on Energy programs with Brownfield’s Larry Lee at the WPS Farm Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.