Energy Efficiency Measures for Schools

If you look at a typical school district budget, facilities operations and maintenance costs are one of the big-ticket items. What if you could decrease the amount your school district spends on utilities?
Is your school energy-efficient? If your school is typical, your power usage goes up every year. Has your school instigated an energy-savings program? It can be as simple as starting a student green club. The students can provide a watt-watching program for your school. Let’s look at some ways schools experience increased power usage and some strategies to help decrease utility costs:
• Start an energy conservation education campaign. Involve the whole school.
• Schools have more computers now than ever. Rather than use screen savers, which don’t save much energy, put computers on “sleep” which will help. Also start a program to turn all computers off when not in use.
• What gets measured gets saved. Have a committee that tracks where lights are being left turned on unnecessarily. Many schools submitted for ARRA funding for projects to have motion sensor lights installed. Students are especially good at being the “lighting police”.
• Make sure HVAC equipment has clean filters and is operating correctly. Newer HVAC systems tend to have programming available that will help with occupied/unoccupied cycles. Have your facilities staff ensure the building HVAC controls are programmed to provide unoccupied settings appropriate for energy savings.
• Are doors being left open during lunch, recess, before and after school? Note problem areas and have students help with efforts to keep doors shut. Or think about adding a vestibule.
• Green in a Box was discussed in a previous blog. You can use the school walkthrough to help target the overall school for individual measures.
• eQuest energy modeling software was reviewed in a previous blog. Model your buildings using eQuest for a benchmark; then compare the benchmark to your actual building. You can come up with a list and the priorities for energy efficiency improvements.
• I drove past a school last week and the lights were on late at night. The custodial staff was cleaning. A new trend in energy savings is to accomplish school janitorial services during the day. If your school is heavily used in the evenings for community events this won’t work, but hopefully if your school is used in the evenings you’re getting rent for your facility to offset utility costs. In any case you’ll want to ensure you’re heating/cooling your building only when needed.
• Use a kill-a-watt meter to determine electricity usage. They cost $30 each, you plug them in and see how much energy you’re using on any given appliance.
• Ask teachers to reduce their in-classroom appliances or take them home. There has been a trend in recent years to have refrigerators, coffee makers, toaster ovens, and other appliances in the classroom. Besides creating an environment for insects and other pests, this creates a lot of extra drain on electricity. When you do purchase appliances, purchase Energy Star appliances.
• Use daylight harvesting (daylighting). How many schools operate with blinds or curtains shut? There are other benefits to providing natural daylight in lieu of electric lighting.
Also look for energy efficiency funding through federal, state, and local entities. Most states and many utility companies have programs that will help schools.
http://www.energysavers.gov/financial/
http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/tools/funding.htm

A Night at the Energy Modeling Improv

I recently attended a presentation on energy modeling. To my surprise, upon arrival one of the presenters was wearing a tall black pointed hat with a brim, and on the hat were gold crescent moons and stars – not a typical presenter at a lunch and learn seminar. The event was billed as “A Night at the Energy Modeling Improv”.

The “Wizard” (thus the hat) explained that we would be participating in an energy modeling exercise using the “Design Wizard” component the Quick Energy Simulation Tools software, more commonly referred to as “eQuest”. Energy modeling is an important component of building design, given today’s more stringent building codes. Energy modeling takes place during the schematic design phase of a project, and is an important tool in moving a building’s design forward. Energy modeling typically utilizes complex software, can be very time-consuming, and is generally thought of as being the bailiwick of the mechanical engineer. The eQuest software was developed by an engineer who wanted a quick, easy way to perform building modeling within several variables.

The Wizard explained we would be playing what they call “the Wizard Game”. He divided us into two groups. He gave us basic programming for the building including square feet and layout, number of stories, window information, R value of insulation for roof and for walls, and orientation. With the co-presenter operating the eQuest software for two different scenarios, our two teams competed against each other, with the software showing on a projection screen so we could see the results. Each team was given several choices of how to decrease energy usage. As each team made their selection of several variables, the co-presenter entered the data into eQuest so we could immediately see what, if any, energy savings was possible with our choices. Two choices stood out: one team chose to upgrade wall insulation, which didn’t cost much but also didn’t make much difference in energy savings. The other team chose to utilize daylighting, which increased electricity savings quite significantly.

That first game gave us a taste for the possibilities of choices that would help win the second game. For the second game, each team started by selecting a building footprint (out of 5-6 choices) and orientation (north-south or east-west). Other choices for the building envelope were square footage of window to wall ratio, glass type, sun shades, wall insulation, and roof insulation. Our team picked a better building footprint than the other team, but we stumbled a bit on glass selection, going for a low-E glazing. The Wizard explained that low-E really doesn’t do much for keeping heat out of a building in Texas, where we deal more with cooling than with heating (low-E works better in cold climates). We also could see what an important selection daylight harvesting is for providing energy savings for a building.

The eQuest Energy Wizard can be used by anyone, and is helpful in providing immediate feedback in modeling strategies during the design stage. This means energy modeling is no longer only something the mechanical engineer is involved in, but by using this simple, free software, anyone can obtain expertise in the concepts behind successfully modeling a given building. Just ask Mr. Wizard!

The eQuest software can be downloaded at www.doe2.com/equest and there is also a downloadable tutorial.

The DOE-2 software was developed by James J. Hirsch & Associates (JJH) in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), with LBNL DOE-2 work performed mostly under funding from the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) and other work performed mostly under funding from a wide range of industry organizations, JJH and LBNL. The site, however, is not sponsored or endorsed by either USDOE or LBNL, and use of “DOE” in names in this site does not imply any endorsement or recommendation of any listed products or services by the United States Government, LBNL, or anyone else.