UD's Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy Wednesday during a luncheon in Columbus, Ohio.

The governor's award is given to individuals or businesses that help to make Ohio more energy efficient, according to a recent press release. For twenty-five years, UD's IAC has been doing just that. The IAC is one of 26 nationally funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. It provides free assessments for medium-sized businesses that meet their qualifications.

According to UD's IAC's Web site, these qualifications include the following: gross annual sales of less than $100 million, having annual energy bills ranging from $100,000 to $2.5 million, a gross of annual sales less than $100 million or less than 500 employees.

A company that meets these qualifications starts its assessment process with a phone interview with IAC. After the phone interview, an information packet is sent to the company.

Soon after, a team from the IAC, consisting of either one or two faculty and up to four students in mechanical, environmental or industrial engineering, visits the company and spends a day touring the facilities and looking at the equipment used.

After six weeks, the team sends the company a report that contains their observations, suggestions and methods for saving energy. After six to 12 months, the team touches base with the company to see what methods were used and to determine the company's satisfaction with their service. With clients reporting average savings of $100,000 a year over the past five years, satisfaction seems to be guaranteed.

Although the U.S. Department of Energy started funding IACs in 1978, UD didn't join until 1981. Dr. J. Kelly, current director of the IAC, said the IAC at UD was founded by Professor Henry Chuang. His goal was to help medium-sized businesses to become more energy efficient. He did over 500 assessments.

In the future, Kelly said, the center plans to continue serving the industry. Although the center serves the industry, it does something else equally important: it trains the next generation of energy engineers.

For more information, check out the center's Web site at http://www.engr.udayton.edu/udiac.