What this guide helps you evaluate
commercial property, facilities and project teams evaluating capital projects and building-lifecycle services where scope control, asset condition and transition economics are material. This comparison checklist helps organize a decision about energy retrofit performance contract.
Prepared by the PROFENG Editorial & Engineering Team. This page is designed to help you compare the moving parts, organize due diligence and ask better questions before you commit money, sign a contract or change an operating process.
Define the business outcome, decision owner, expected term and the evidence needed to validate energy baseline and savings guarantee.
Normalize energy baseline and savings guarantee, equipment scope measurement and verification and financing service terms and performance remedies before comparing proposals or internal options.
Keep assumptions separate from verified facts and record the source, date and owner for material requirements.
Create a defensible like-for-like comparison
A comparison checklist is useful only when every option is tested against the same scope, assumptions and evidence standard. Missing information should remain visible as a gap rather than being silently treated as equivalent performance.
- Use one requirement matrix and the same scoring definitions for every shortlisted option.
- Distinguish verified evidence, supplier claims, assumptions and unanswered questions.
- Normalize contract term, usage volumes, one-time charges and recurring charges to one horizon.
- Record exceptions and trade-offs explicitly so a strong score in one area cannot hide a material weakness elsewhere.
Decision gate: select a preferred option only after material gaps, exceptions and cost differences have named owners and an explicit acceptance or mitigation decision.
What to compare first
- energy baseline and savings guarantee
- equipment scope measurement and verification
- financing service terms and performance remedies
- asset and project scope
- delivery responsibility and acceptance criteria
- capital cost, operating impact and lifecycle evidence
Step-by-step process
- 01
Create one comparison column per shortlisted option and one row per mandatory requirement.
- 02
Record verified evidence for energy baseline and savings guarantee, equipment scope measurement and verification, financing service terms and performance remedies and mark missing information instead of assuming equivalence.
- 03
Normalize one-time, recurring, usage-based and internal costs to the same time horizon.
- 04
Record contractual, security, implementation and operating exceptions with owners.
- 05
Reconcile the final matrix with finance, operations and any required professional reviewer.
Common mistakes and risk checks
- approving projects without a measured baseline
- underestimating landlord tenant or operational interfaces
- failing to define acceptance, warranty and handover evidence
- Treating a comparison checklist as a substitute for signed agreements, current official rules or qualified professional review.
Documents and evidence to collect
- asset condition and building inventory
- lease or project requirements
- budget and baseline operating data
- provider proposal and project schedule
Questions to ask before approval
- How is energy baseline and savings guarantee defined, measured and evidenced?
- What changes if equipment scope measurement and verification is higher or lower than the base case?
- Which fees, exclusions, implementation tasks or operating duties sit outside financing service terms and performance remedies?
How to use and verify this guide
Use the comparison criteria and questions as a decision framework, then verify current prices, legal requirements, technical specifications, service terms and regulatory obligations with the primary or official references listed above. PROFENG explains its source, calculation and review principles on the methodology page.