Energy Exchange

The Thermostat Game

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 5, 2011

By: Eliza Davis, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

My first month as a Climate Corps Public Sector fellow at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, has flown by. My EDF partner, Jen Weiss, and I had a whirlwind of meetings with energy specialists, and have explored the ins and outs of Shaw’s campus. We have ventured far and wide in search of energy savings, checking natural gas meters and counting the number of light bulbs in classroom buildings. However, we made one of our greatest discoveries in our very own workspace.

Jen and I work in Estey Hall, a beautiful, red brick administration building. It was constructed in 1864 as a dormitory for women. Because of its age, the building is difficult to uniformly heat and cool. Walking through the hallways and into rooms, we noticed defined layers of temperature. We decided to track thermostat settings to get to the bottom of these temperature discrepancies. What we found surprised us!

Not only were many of the thermostats set at 70 degrees or below, but many newer programmable thermostats were on the energy wasting ‘hold’ setting. This means that the rooms are kept at the same temperature, day or night, full or empty, and regardless of outdoor temperature. Programmable thermostats can reduce energy costs by allowing you to set different temperatures based on the time of day and expected room occupancy.

After figuring out the reasons behind the layers of temperature at Estey Hall, we expanded our investigation to thermostats around campus. We uncovered thermostats of all styles and ages: small square controls that only allow for an up or down adjustment, fancy programmable models, and rectangular hotel-style air conditioner units that have ‘warmer’ to ‘cooler’ dials. Overall, we found that despite the type of thermostat, most offices, classrooms, and meeting spaces were kept cool all day long.

So began our experiment to see if anyone would notice slight increases in temperature in large meeting spaces. We increased a few of the 69-degree thermostats to a range between 72 and 76 degrees. Thus began the thermostat game. Every morning we rushed eagerly to thermostats to check the settings, and lo and behold – the thermostats were reset and left at or below 70 degrees.

Our survey of Shaw’s thermostats showed us that there is a significant potential for savings with temperature management. In the history of the Climate Corps Public Sector program, temperature management makes up one-third of projected energy savings. Shaw University can easily reduce energy use and carbon pollution through the introduction of more programmable thermostats and a campus-wide energy management system.

The thermostat game taught us the most important lesson: A device is only as good as its operation. We recognize now that energy conservation education will be an important part of our recommendations for Shaw, and we are excited about developing ways to raise awareness about energy use on campus.

EDF Climate Corps Public Sector (CCPS) trains graduate students to identify energy efficiency savings in colleges, universities, local governments and houses of worship. The program focuses on partnerships with minority serving institutions and diverse communities. Apply as a CCPS fellow, read our blog posts and follow us on Twitter to get regular updates about this program.

Would Your Building Pass An Energy Efficiency Background Check?

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 3, 2011

By: Jian Huo, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow in Mecklenburg County, NC; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

This summer, my EDF partner, Adam Hart, and I are running energy efficiency “background checks” on buildings at Mecklenburg County Real Estate Services in North Carolina. Of the county’s 100 facilities, we identified 15 energy-intensive sites and arranged site tours of them for a closer look. In our energy assessments of the facilities, the red flags for energy waste were older machines with low energy efficiency, lighting, and HVAC systems.

Lighting – Metal Halides in Gyms and Pools

The county’s indoor gyms and pools are equipped with over 300 metal halides that are 400W and 1000W, which run more than 50 hours per week. Due to their long re-strike time, daylight sensors and occupancy sensors cannot be used to help save energy. However, switching to lower wattage LED lights can cut current energy use by 85% and allow for the installation of daylight sensors and occupancy sensors for further energy reduction. Changing lights in the high ceilings will

be a great challenge, especially in the pool areas. Although it seems time consuming and risky to change lighting above water, maintenance can put scissor lifts on the movable walkways to get to the metal halides and replace them.

HVAC – Heat Pumps Without Controls

HVAC is the most complicated and intimidating part of the whole building system to a Climate Corps Public Sector fellow with little background in engineering. Even after Adam and I did background checks on all the sites, we had no direct solution for upgrading those giant and inefficient machines. So Adam and I started to conduct interviews with HVAC experts and facility managers, acquiring valuable information along the way. With newfound information, we tackled the County and Courts Office Building, which has heat pumps that are not connected to the central control system, but instead controlled with individual thermostats. Because the heat pumps may not work stably under high temperatures, the air conditioning controls are never set back when the facility is vacant. Energy savings will be easily achieved if the heat pumps are looped into the control system, allowing for the set back of air conditioning and heating controls during unoccupied hours.

Overall, our recommended changes to lighting and HVAC systems at facilities in Mecklenburg County Real Estate Services have great potential to cut energy usage and reduce greenhouse gas pollution. By doing background research of the buildings’ systems, touring sites, and talking to the right people, Adam and I were able to tackle the red flags of energy waste at the county’s facilities. After the retrofits are made, all of their buildings will pass our “background check.” Would yours?

Middletown Township: First In Energy Efficiency

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 1, 2011

By: Jim Hildenbrand, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Middletown Township, New Jersey; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

Although Middletown is one of New Jersey’s largest towns, its carbon footprint is small for its size. In 2010, Middletown attained Sustainable New Jersey Bronze status by committing to sustainable actions that involved tracking greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating solid waste through improved recycling, and educating the public on ways to reduce its environmental impact. The Township has received $700,000 in state and federal grants, conducted efficiency upgrades with at least 60% of costs covered, and a comprehensive energy assessment. In short, Middletown is committed to the environment.

However, with these environmental initiatives comes the challenge of tracking effort and making progress. For instance, one effort could be undone or made redundant by another. I dedicated the first half of my Climate Corps Public Sector fellowship to fully understand what had happened, what will happen, and what may happen.

Now in the second half of my fellowship, the pace has not slackened and I am evaluating a variety of opportunities for energy savings. About 20 of Middletown’s buildings consume 9,000 megawatt-hours per year. Each building is unique and no two buildings serve the same purpose. While this adds to the challenge, it has been a lot of fun. I explored a turn of the century schoolhouse that was retrofitted into a boxing ring. I also traversed the floors of the headmaster’s house of a former all-boys school that is now used as the seat for the historical society, a gymnasium, and a drug rehabilitation program.

My approaches to energy efficiency span the spectrum. One size does not fit all in the realm of energy savings. For one building, I examine the possibility of consolidating thermostat controls to prevent its six rooftop units from working against each other. In another, white roofing is the best option to help lessen the cooling load. Just as no two buildings are the same, no two approaches toward energy efficiency are either. This customized approach to reducing energy bills and greenhouse gas pollution will keep Middletown’s environmental impact to a minimum and inspire neighboring towns to do the same.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Tagged Middletown Township - 2011 | Comments are closed

Top Down Energy Savings: 1 Fellow, 1 Housing Authority, And 400,000 New Yorkers

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 29, 2011

By: Harrison Thomas, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at the New York City Housing Authority, MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University; MBA candidate at Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

If you work with the Energy Department at the New York City Housing Authority, here is what you’ve got on your hands:

Hundreds of heating systems, all different
Thousands of buildings, all different
Hundreds of thousands of tenants, all different
Millions of energy consuming fixtures
Hundreds of millions of dollars in annual energy costs, and rising

In recent years, the housing authority has undertaken many initiatives to directly conserve energy in the 2,600 buildings that house 400,000 New Yorkers. These energy saving initiatives include investments in energy-efficient lighting, instant hot water heaters, refrigerators, and elevators. These capital investments have clear costs and provide clear benefits, but energy expenditures continue to climb by millions of dollars per year.

The authority has limited resources and relies on management systems to set priorities to serve tenants and conserve energy. Last week, I went on a field trip to see the capital investments and management systems first hand. The immense scale of investment needed to provide thermal comfort and hot water to tenants was immediately apparent. Each boiler room is incredibly large, complex, and requires full-time monitoring by technicians and supervisors. And the authority doesn’t have just a couple of boiler rooms to manage – it has hundreds that are all different. Read More »

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Tagged New York City Housing Authority - 2011 | Comments are closed

Solar Farms And LED Snowflakes In July

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 28, 2011

By: Erin Evans, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina; MPA candidate at Appalachian State University

It feels like only yesterday when my EDF partner, Daniel Brookshire, and I moved to Cherokee, North Carolina to start our work with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Time has flown by and the experience has been absolutely amazing. As we type up our final reports and begin to see the results of cost savings and energy savings for the Tribe, it is hard to believe we did so much in a short period of time.

Visiting a Solar Farm

Daniel and I visited an $8 million dollar solar farm owned by FLS Energy, a company out of Asheville, NC, that leases land from the Blue Ridge Paper Landfill in Haywood County for only $1 per year. FLS Energy signed a 25-year contract with Progress Energy to sell back the solar energy generated by its farm. A tour of the solar farm, as well as a meeting in the FLS office led to further discussions on how the Tribe can use this renewable energy on its reservation. Photovoltaic arrays on tribal buildings and solar thermal power can help the tribe reach its goal of becoming more sustainable and energy efficient.

Snowflakes in July

A favorite project of ours started one hot July day inside an unair-conditioned warehouse, where Daniel and I counted all of the tiny bulbs inside the snowflake decorations that hang from light poles in the winter. Each of the 79 large snowflakes contains 90 little glass bulbs. In addition to saving energy, stepping on and shattering several of the fragile 7W bulbs gave more reason to switch to 1W durable plastic LED bulbs, each of which lasts 60,000 hours. Soon these snowflakes will glow even brighter with LED illumination. The best present is the energy reduction of over 60,000W and energy cost savings of $6,000. Happy holidays in Cherokee.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Tagged Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians - 2011 | Comments are closed

Catalyzing Change: Sustainability In A Southern Town

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 22, 2011

By: Kealy Devoy, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at the Town of Cary, NC; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

This summer, I am working with the Town of Cary in North Carolina to identify energy efficiency improvements throughout its organization. My focus is on two projects: fire and emergency services sustainability, and energy planning. Cary’s commitment to saving energy deserves applause.

My goal is to see tangible energy efficiency improvements. Some of these changes are easily measurable: energy use reductions, dollars saved, and greenhouse gas emissions avoided. Others will be tougher to track, such as determining the number of Cary employees who are aware of sustainability initiatives.

Catalyzing change takes time, certainly more than 10 short weeks. However despite this limited time period that I have, there are many strategies that can be used to point organizations in the right direction. During the Climate Corps Public Sector training, Paula Thomas, the Sustainability Director for the City of Raleigh, gave the fellows a list of ways to become agents of change in the municipalities, churches, and universities that we are working with. Her seven core steps to catalyzing change are:

Make it official.
Identify the changers.
Change is not binary.
Operate in parallel.
The Rule of 7.
Market internally and externally.
Celebrate successes. Read More »

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Comments are closed