Altogether, the project will replace 42 classroom unit ventilators and all windows original to the 1961 portion of the building. A new wood pellet boiler will soon provide most of the school’s heat. Using wood pellets will also help support the forest products industry, an important part of the local and regional economy, as wood pellets are considered carbon neutral.

Other major improvements at the 101,000-square-foot high school include unifying the building’s three separate heat circulation loops and upgrading its heating and ventilation controls system to provide better comfort and efficiency. Crews will also install energy recovery ventilation systems in the gymnasium and auditorium and demand-controlled ventilation in the cafeteria. Interior lighting improvements will include installing efficient and dimmable LED lamps and controls, and all exterior parking lot lighting will be upgraded to LED technology.

The funds supporting Otter Valley Union High School’s various improvements will be generated through energy cost savings efforts completed through a partnership with Milwaukee-headquartered Johnson Controls with assistance from SameSun of Rutland, Vt. Together, the three are implementing a $3.6 million energy performance contract that will help the school dramatically reduce its carbon emissions, paying for the improvements over the next 18 years through substantial energy cost savings, according to a statement by Johnson Controls.

A 227kW solar photovoltaic array on the building’s roof is anticipated to produce half of the electricity used by the school annually, and is on hold pending resolution by the state’s Public Service Board and local utilities, including Green Mountain Power. The school will be incorporating the solar project into its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education efforts, benefiting both education and local taxpayers, as it will lessen the facility’s dependence on electricity from the grid. The solar array and other efforts are expected to reduce the school’s carbon footprint by more than 75 percent.

“We believe the solar project we’ve designed with the help of Johnson Controls and local solar developer SameSun of Rutland has all the favorable characteristics worthy of a ‘Certificate of Public Good’ from the Public Service Board,” said Superintendent Jeanne Collins, in a statement. “It will be located on top of our school, not visible from the ground, and almost all the power it produces will be used on site.”

Otter Valley has budgeted roughly $300,000 annually in recent years to meet its energy needs. When the energy performance contract is fully implemented, the school expects to spend approximately $100,000 per year on heating fuels and electricity. Meanwhile the school will also put $160,000 annually toward paying for the project.
 

The post Otter Valley High School Invests in Energy Savings appeared first on School Construction News.

“The utility savings from this first phase of work have outperformed our expectations,” said MSU Assistant Facilities Director Dan Stevenson in a statement. “These projects have allowed us to proactively control our utility costs and build infrastructure that will last for decades.”

The Bozeman office of Seattle-headquartered design, construction and energy services firm McKinstry performed the ESPC. The $8 million project was completed in 2013 following an intensive energy audit, which laid out numerous opportunities for utility savings, according to a statement by McKinstry. The company guaranteed the university an annual savings of more than $370,000 from reductions in energy, water, steam and natural gas use as well as peak demand.

After the project’s first year, McKinstry confirmed the ESPC’s actual savings were approximately $429,000 — 15 percent higher than the original projection. Considering those initial savings projections were calculated using the state utility rates established when the original energy audit occurred in 2010 — in which time state utility rates have increased by approximately 7 percent — the ESPC has actually resulted in an even greater annual energy savings, according to a statement by McKinstry.

The project’s first phase included both mechanical and lighting upgrades in several auxiliary buildings, including the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, which hosts sporting events, concerts and trade shows. University students advocated for and largely supported the energy upgrades, which are helping the school meet its sustainability goals while also improving livability and comfort in facilities such as the residence and dining halls, according to McKinstry. The resulting reductions in utility consumption have reduced the university’s annual carbon footprint by more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to removing 1,000 average homes from the energy grid, the company said.

“Montana State University has been a trailblazer for public organizations in the state,” said Jeff Davis, business unit manager for McKinstry, in a statement. “Their decision to forge ahead with energy upgrades across dozens of campus buildings demonstrates their long-term vision for the health and sustainability of the university.”

Two subsequent projects have also been completed on the MSU campus, and any energy and cost savings resulting are currently being measured and verified.

The energy savings performance contracting legislation that supported the project was enacted in Montana in 2007. The university’s ESPC was the first of its kind by an institution within the Montana University System. There also is currently a collaborative effort continuing within the state to improve statutory language and determine how services can be improved to encourage mutually beneficial ESPCs for state and local government and K-12 schools, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

The post Facility Upgrades Equal Energy Savings at MSU appeared first on School Construction News.

The RBHS facility is a district energy plant that provides utilities to RBHS and University Hospital of Newark. The central plant monitoring system at the facility was designed and implemented by New York-headquartered utiliVisor, an energy advisory company. utiliVisor implemented the program of continuous energy supervision for a 20,700-ton chilled water plant, 291,000-pounds-per-hour boiler plant and 10.5-MW cogeneration system, along with all ancillary equipment. The plant recently had been retrofitted with new energy-efficient equipment to provide utility service for the next 20 years of operation.

The utiliVisor program involved continuously commissioning the plant operations to maximize the payback of the retrofit for the university. The monitoring effort took a holistic view of energy performance, analyzing the operation of each piece of equipment required to generate and distribute chilled water, high temperature hot water and electric power to the campus. utiliVisor’s energy engineers were responsible for analyzing the energy data from the RBHS facility and recommending the most efficient operating strategy at all load conditions. The data analysis verified the energy models prepared for the retrofit, enabling the equipment to be fully optimized on an ongoing basis.

“With its retrofit project, Rutgers has committed considerable capital resources to install energy-efficient chillers and cogeneration equipment,” said Tim Angerame, director at utiliVisor, in a statement. “The continuous energy-monitoring program has helped ensure that the institution is getting the maximum potential energy savings from that investment.”

The results of the first year of monitoring at RBHS were presented by utiliVisor at the International District Energy Association Campus Conference in Atlanta in February 2014 in conjunction with Concord Engineering.

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences has become the core of New Jersey’s health sciences system. With three campuses and a network of more than 200 affiliated health care and educational partners spanning the state, RBHS is one of the nation’s largest health sciences universities.

The post Rutgers Saves $1.5 Million in Energy Costs appeared first on School Construction News.

The company recently released its case study of St. Lucie County School District, which previously had one of the highest energy costs per square foot of school districts in the state of Florida. Realizing a need for change, the school district implemented Calmac thermal energy storage technology to reduce their heavy energy bills.

“Our products run the chillers of a building at night when they’re usually doing nothing,” said Mark MacCracken, Calmac CEO. “We store the energy in the form of ice. During the day, we melt the ice in order to cool the building. So, you’ve shifted a major electric load from the on-peak period to the off-peak period. We’re decoupling when you create cooling from when you’re using the cooling.”

By using the company’s IceBank thermal energy storage, the school district saw a reduction of $5 million in utility costs over the past seven years. Overall, the company has completed hundreds of installations in schools throughout Florida and the nation. In a time where maintaining fiscal sustainability is critical, energy savings made with the thermal energy storage technology can help relieve the pressures of budget cuts, MacCracken said.

“There is a large savings in energy cost, which the administration sees, and they can then use these savings to hire another teacher or something of that nature,” he said. “It may improve the quality of education because you have a better student-teacher ratio.”

Many of the earlier myths surrounding thermal energy storage have now been dispelled, and commercial buildings are realizing the major cost savings in using off-peak energy.

“Thermal storage is not difficult, we’ve taken the complexity out of it. It’s a proven and reliable product that saves owners money and energy,” MacCracken said.

MacCracken likened the utilization of thermal energy storage in commercial buildings to throwing a barbecue at one’s home.

“If you’ve ever thrown a barbecue at your house and you have 20 people coming over, you would never think it’s a good idea to start making the ice cubes for the party when people start walking through the door,” he said. “Your refrigerator could never keep up with it.”

Though it is standard practice to instantly cool a building during on-peak periods, it is simply illogical to do so, MacCracken said. Using energy collected during off-peak periods is far cheaper for owners, he said.

“To air condition that same person at the barbecue in a commercial building, for each person you need the equivalent cooling of somewhere between 150 and 300 pounds of ice. And yet, in most buildings they start making the cooling instantaneously when people get there,” MacCracken said.

Additionally, the practice of thermal energy storage is much more environmentally friendly. Buildings must lessen their dependence on carbon-based fuels and opt for renewable energy to become better stewards to the environment, MacCracken said.

“Renewables are very important as we move forward to try to lessen our impact on the environment,” he said.

The post Thermal Energy Storage Saves Energy, Costs for Schools appeared first on School Construction News.

The 171,972-square-foot school will feature a three-story classroom building, two-story administration and media center, new music and band rooms, dance studios and a three-story atrium. Westridge currently shows enrollment at 1,078 but is expected to reach capacity at 1,215 after renovations.

Following completion of the new school in October 2012, the existing facility will function as a swing school for a nearby elementary school. After the swing school year, the old building will be demolished and replaced with a track and outdoor fields.

The $27 million construction project is led by Charles Perry Partners Inc. and started during summer 2011. The company has constructed more than 30 LEED projects and installed numerous energy thermal tanks. It counts more than 50 LEED-accredited professionals on staff.

Shaw Mechanical Services LLC, an Orlando, Fla.-based company, along with three other Florida-based companies — Charles Perry Partners, Zyscovich Architects and SGM Engineering — have partnered together to bring 400 tons of energy saving installations to Westridge.

The system consists of 15 ice storage tanks, or energy thermal tanks, that serve as a source for conserved energy. The ice storage operates by using the chiller during off-peak nighttime hours in order to run the system with the cooling temperatures during the on-peak daytime hours, saving energy throughout the day.

Shaw Mechanical will be the subcontractor on the project and will install the tanks for the school. The units to be installed are a newer installation for the company; it previously installed three tanks at other locations throughout Florida.

“We’ve worked with other schools before and it’s a common system in the state of Florida,” said Glenn Mullins, vice president of Charles Perry Partners.

Charles Perry Partners has worked with K-12 school districts, the University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, healthcare clients, and state and local governments.

Mullins said that the tanks save money depending on the size of the school, but seem to be most cost-effective for middle schools and high schools.

Florida has several schools throughout the state equipped with thermal energy storage including Hernando County schools, McIntosh Middle School, Sarasota County schools and soon will be adding Westridge, part of Orange County Public Schools.

OCPS also has plans to continue building middle schools and high schools in its district with cost saving energy thermal tanks as a school standard.

The post Energy-Saving Installations at New Florida Middle School appeared first on School Construction News.