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 Ted Torre Bueno ticks off options for buildings in a small office in Solana Beach: “We can go into a building, assess the structure, develop recommendations for the owner to upgrade, change or modify their existing heat, lighting, insulation or ventilation and air conditioning  systems—all free—and present that owner with ready-to-go options and plans that can make the building more efficient in terms of energy use or savings, increase the value of the property, save money long term and ultimately use less resources on a planet that’s running out of them. That’s what we can do first,” he says, tapping out the points on his fingers.
Torre Bueno is President and VP of Operations at Empowered Solutions, a new company that works with home owners, developers and builders to breathe life into old structures and make them run leaner in an age of higher energy bills and tighter economic times. Empowered Solutions is a kind of meta-economic force multiplier that has a very large customer base to work with since most buildings now standing were not built with economy of operation in mind. For those structures to be economically viable in the future, Torre Bueno says, they'll have to upgrade to a greener way of being—and Empowered Solutions is their ace in the hole.
At heart of Empowered Solutions system of analysis is a proprietary energy optimization procedure, an algorithm that takes the expected life and return on investment into account along with energy use and saving concerns. The algorithm chooses from among many possible upgrades and system refit options to reach an optimal solution for each structure that can increase property value for reasonable outlay and lessen costs to owners in the long run. At present, most assessments for energy savings are run with few variables at hand; this is because calculations for assessments can take great amounts of time even with only a few variables handy. Torre Bueno says that his company has thousands of variables to fit structures of all kinds and that his algorithm can find useful data much more quickly than brute-force computing can.
The beauty of Empowered’s system is that it can function at surprisingly low levels; even an apartment dweller can get a consultation from the company to find ways that the resident can spend less or lessen their carbon footprint. Information on buildings and surveyed structures is confidential and recent tax incentives at state and federal levels encourage property owners to explore ways to upgrade their properties without too much agony and no long term commitment. Sometimes, simple things like high efficiency lighting, better energy controls and point insulation can dramatically change even a small structure’s use of energy. Torre Bueno can provide this data and recommend suppliers and outlets for concerned residents to enhance their energy use.
Though the company has been in business for a little over a year, prospects are good; home buyers and business owners lead the way to Torre Bueno’s office and Empowered seems to be doing more business with restaurants and other hospitality-themed businesses. Torre Bueno expects this to continue even as the economy lags.
If the US government steps up controls on greenhouse gas emissions, the need for better and more effective energy use will become standard operating procedure for the building industry, and it’s likely that retrofitting of older structures may become mandatory to some degree. If that happens, the Solana Beach Empowered Solutions, Inc., will be a US leader in a new and expanding trade to make a more sustainable, greener planet.