Energy Budget Planning: ROI Calculator [Free Excel Template]

Are you scrambling to quote a budget or calculate the ROI of your next energy efficiency project? Or rushing to get your energy budget planning done before the end of the year? 

No worries, we’re here to help! Use our handy Excel template to calculate and fast-track your energy project funding:

How Much do I need to Invest in Energy Management?

The first question energy managers usually get from their client or employer is: “How much will I actually save?”

Until recently, answering that question involved complicated decision-making processes, calculations and investments.

Those headaches disappear with our free online calculator: Dexma Detect

But the second logical question is: “How much will energy management cost my company?” Or, in other words, how much do we really need to invest in energy management?

DEXMA to the rescue again! We have created a simple, ready-made and easy-to-use Excel template to help you answer your specific energy cost questions more precisely.  

Simply input a few numbers to learn:

• How much investment you’ll need for the first year of your project
• How much you’ll need to invest in hardware, software, services & retrofits
• ROI by year, detailed for the first and second year and forecasted for 10 years.

How To Use the Energy Budget Calculator 

Once you’ve got your free-to-download Excel template, here’s what you need to do to get your energy budget planning started:

Step 0: Gather your client’s energy bills.

Step 1: Go to DEXMA Platform and answer the questions based on your client’s building. Upload the electricity bills that you gathered in Step 0.

Step 2: While you wait for your DEXMA Detect report, fill out the Excel sheet called “Energy Cost”. The more energy sources and months you can add,  the more accurate your budget proposal and ROI estimate will be.

Step 3: Once you have the energy cost sheet finished, move to the sheet “Your Energy Efficiency Budget”. Here you only need to touch one cell: D12. Add the estimated savings you get from your free DEXMA Detect savings report.

You’re all set!

Understanding your Energy Efficiency Budget Estimate

On your energy efficiency budget plan, you will see the budget divided into hardware, software and services & retrofits.

What are you seeing here? Year 1 investment comes from the 10% rule (or one monthly bill rule) that we explained in our free guide to getting your energy efficiency project funded.

Investment in the 2nd year comes from your estimated potential savings from DEXMA Detect. Assuming you’ll want to keep your client engaged and happy with energy efficiency results, simply apply the savings generated during the first month’s of work on retrofitting the overall energy management project and create synergies to keep saving energy.