Energy performance
: Energy-payback financing helps university upgrade roofing
The Garland Company Inc. For years, Lake Superior University, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., administrators recognized the need for roofing improvements, but budgeting had been problematic.
In 1996, a comprehensive roof inspection and assessment was conducted by The Garland Company. Wet insulation had almost nullified the R-value of several campus roofs. The most critical roofs were repaired over the next several years. But it wasn't until Johnson Controls Inc. approached the university about two years ago with an ambitious Energy Star savings initiative, that financing for a more aggressive program of tear-offs and replacements became feasible.
Energy Star is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and companies like Johnson Controls and Garland. It provides uniform standards for assessing the life-cycle energy payback of specific manufactured products, comprising a wide gamut of materials from HVAC and roofing to windows, lighting and controls.
The goal was to allow the university to use its long-term energy savings to repay the bonds sold to finance the renovation projects. The Johnson Controls performance contract guaranteed specific energy-payback returns, and it was the university's responsibility to collect, analyze and report the data that demonstrates those savings to the university.
The energy evaluation confirmed that there was a severe heat loss through the roofs due to wet insulation and poor ventilation. Confident that anticipated energy savings eventually would pay for the needed improvements, they replaced troublesome roofs with Garland products.
Six of the nine recently completed roofs were replaced with various modified-bitumen systems from the StressPly Mineral series of high-performance products. The remaining three replacements were shingle roofs.
Over the course of several months, they worked to define and finance about 250 facility improvements using a 10-year payback model. Phase One, representing 183 of those improvements, included nine roof replacements and was completed in the spring of 2002.
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Power management
: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy
The ENERGY STAR program allows classroom computer monitors to enter a low-power “sleep” mode when inactive. For every 1,000 monitors using ENERGY STAR's free, easy-to-use power-management software tools, enough energy is saved to light 160 households.
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Occupant comfort
McQuay. Designed for quiet operation, the GeneSys air-cooled screw chillers help increase occupant comfort and reduce operating costs. With aerodynamic fan blades and low rpm motors, the chiller's screw compressor design delivers low sound-pressure levels that minimize background noise disruptions.
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Dimming controls
HUNT Dimming. The Simplicity series digital dimming systems are designed to simplify contractor installation by using a compact, lightweight design and minimal wiring requirements. The control stations include LCD touchscreens.
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Energy costs
Bayview Technology Group. The VendingMiser is a power control technology for cold-beverage vending machines. The device uses a Passive Infrared (PIR) sensor. The PIR sensor powers down the vending machine when the surrounding area is vacant, while maintaining the temperature of the product.
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Cooling solution
Air-cooled chillers and ice storage provide savings for growing district
The Trane Company. In years past, Johnston County School District's (Johnston County, N.C.) classes were dismissed frequently because the school buildings were too hot for useful education to take place.
Today, the district's goal is to never have to dismiss classes due to unbearable classroom heat again. Johnston County is the fastest-growing school district in the state — it has an enrollment of 23,000 and is adding more than 1,000 students per year. There are 32 schools plus administrative buildings in the district, and with the growth of the school population, administrators looked for standard energy solutions that could be applied in multiple buildings.
In 1996, the pace of school construction was accelerating and the need for improved classroom comfort was being emphasized. The district's energy team and its construction department standardized a school design featuring air-cooled screw chillers and ice-storage tanks as a solution for school cooling.
Since that time, 10 schools have been built with this system, and more are on the drawing boards. The typical elementary school encompasses 82,000 square feet and is equipped with one 125-ton Trane Company air-cooled Series R screw chiller and six Calmac ICEBANK ice storage tanks. Middle schools of 111,000 square feet typically have two chillers and nine ice tanks. The high schools are 260,000 square feet, and have three air-cooled chillers and 12 Calmac tanks. The tanks are either the Calmac Model 1190 or the smaller Model 1060.
The air-cooled chillers do not require condenser water, water treatment or tower maintenance. This approach eliminates water and sewer charges, reduces electric-demand charges, and allows schools to qualify for a favorable time-of-use electric energy rate from their electric supplier.
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