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A source for everyone interested in energy, business and the environment  |
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"...an invaluable guide to a more helpful future..."
-Walter Cronkite |
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COOL COMFORT
Today, design and technological measures that improve comfort and air quality while cutting energy for indoor climate control by 40 percent or more are almost commonplace. Sometimes this involves newer, better climate equipment. But often the biggest gains come from reducing the need for heating and cooling by lowering the load up front.
Like most efforts to reduce waste, saving the energy in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) requires a systematic approach. Companies shouldn't upgrade climate systems until lighting, computer equipment, and the building shell have been improved, since much of the cooling load is needed simply to counter excess heat created by inefficient gear.
- Before overhauling the cooling system, managers of the Bank of America Building in San Francisco first took steps that cut the cooling load, allowing for a converted chiller that was 40 percent smaller than the old one. At the same time, the chiller's full-load efficiency was increased more than 25 percent. Overall, at full load, the converted chiller uses 56 percent less electricity.
- The motion picture studio DreamWorks SKG - owned by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen -pioneered an important concept when they opted to purchase conditioned air instead of air conditioners for a five-building animation campus in Glendale, California, arranging to lease controlled climate from Sempra Energy Solutions. Sempra owns and operates DreamWorks' entire energy system including a heating and cooling plant that also generates electricity. DreamWorks pays a monthly fee for air conditioned to its specifications.
Sempra financed the deal, removing the energy system from DreamWorks' capital budget. That freed resources for its core business instead. Meanwhile, Sempra makes efficiency investments that minimize costs over the 15-year life of the lease, rather than the usual two-year payback a non-energy company might make, allowing them to fully exploit the savings.
- Ford Motor Company stamping plant in Buffalo, New York uses an emerging solar technology called the 'unglazed transpired collector' to heat outside air before pulling it into the ventilation system - saving Ford nearly $200,000 a year. The 50,000-square-foot system, made by Conserval Systems of Buffalo, covers the south-facing plant walls. Heated air is distributed throughout the facility by more than a mile of flexible ducts. In sunny areas with long heating seasons, such systems can cut energy consumption by warming outside air as much as 50 degrees. Typical payback time is less than five years.
- Lockheed Martin wanted to improve the performance of the ventilation system at its plating plant in Burlington, Vermont. Working with experts from the local utility, the U.S. Department of Energy, and outside contractors, Lockheed upgraded a 25-year-old ventilation system with adjustable speed drives and an energy management system that automatically matches ventilation to match plant needs. The project cut electric and gas costs by 38 percent, improved ventilation control, and reduced plant emissions. An upgrade costing $99,000 saved more than $68,000 a year, making for a simple payback of 1.5 years.
- When Parker Chiropractic College in Dallas, Texas upgraded its chiller plant and control system in 1996, it reduced electricity use by 43 percent with a 3.5-year payback. In the process, they also eliminated a refrigerant that depletes the ozone layer.
- Magnetic Metals Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, which makes components for motors, installed gas-fired infrared heating devices that cut heating expenses 47 percent with a 2-year payback. Perhaps more important, "People have more comfort and a more healthy environment," says the company's manager for manufacturing engineering and facilities.
- The City of Long Beach, California, together with energy services company Southland Industries, significantly reduced energy at a number of facilities - notably the 14-story, 764,000-square-foot Civic Center where they reduced energy use 44 percent in lighting, 43 percent in the chiller plant, and 69 percent in ventilation, all with a seven-year payback.
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