Energy Conservation : Energy Efficiency Fund : Wardenburg Health Center

Lighting:

This year, Wardenburg received new compact fluorescent lighting (see before and after pictures below) that replaced existing incandescent lighting at the third floor. This helped improve the quality of lighting as well as save energy. A single 25 Watt compact fluorescent lamp can replace (2) 60 Watt incandescent lamps, providing more illuminance as they are much more efficient (efficiency in lighting means more lumens output per energy).

Before Lighting upgrade.

 

After Lighting Upgrade.

Recomissioning:

Wardenburg is also going through a whole building systems re-commissioning. This $15,000 project is a result of occupants’ complaints about the thermal conditions within the building. These complaints were raised on the survey distributed by the environmental-center. Re-commissioning is used to calibrate a building’s mechanical system and to find sources of problems causing the discomfort felt by its occupants. Because many times the source of thermal discomfort is also the source of inefficiency in the building’s operations, re-commissioning can save between 5 and 25% in energy after problems have been identified and fixed. Wardenburg’s re-commissioning is already proving a great saver as many problems are being addressed.

Nighttime Setback:

Wardenburg also saw immediate saving with a project that cost nothing to be implemented. It was found that while the building was unoccupied, after-hours and on holidays, the maintained temperature of the building was kept the same as during its occupied hours. This is clearly unnecessary and has cost the building several thousand dollars on utility bills that could be easily cut-down. By using the campus’ automated system, the temperature was set back during the building’s unoccupied hours, based on the schedule provided by the building proctor.

Simple projects such as these will save the building at least $5,000 a year in utility cost, and probably that much more after the re-commissioning is complete.

A breakdown of the projects’ total cost and estimated savings are shown below:

 

 

WARDENBURG

 

LIGHTING NIGHTIME SETBACK RE-COMMISSIONING

energy efficient case

3rd floor and stairways

whole building

whole building

capital cost

$ 431.46

0

$15,000

LCC (energy efficient case)

$ 7,072

$ 92,336.75

 

base case

 

 

 

capital cost

$120

$ -

$ -

LCC (base case)

$ 22,327

$ 134,319.77

$ -

total life cost $$ savings*

$ 15,255

$ 41,983

$ -

total KWh/year saved

7,237

335 MMBtu

? 

Expected Impact

improved lighting quality and reduced energy consumption

reduced energy consumption

improve occupancy comfort, and potentially reduce energy consumption

* Life time of project is N=20 years and discount rate is d=5.6%, as per University standards.
The cost of electricity is $0.12/KWh and steam is $10.8/MMBTu, as per utility cost average

For More Information about the Energy Efficiency Fund, click on any of the following links:

• OVERVIEW
• UNIVERSITY MEMORIAL CENTER
• RECREATIONAL CENTER
• FY 04-05 COST SUMMARY
• GOALS AND FUTURE PROJECTS