Experimenting with Efficiency: Millenial Makers

Experimenting with Efficiency Washington DCTeam: Millennial Makers March 14th 2014Problem StatementLabs account for 40-50% of university energy useInvestment, utility bills and grant money split among stakeholders Labs can account for 40-50% of energy use at universities. Lab buildings can have energy use intensities ranging from 200-800 kBTU/SF/yr, compared with an average of VAV conversions and controls upgrade. Retrofit of UC San Diego building reduced ventilation levels from a constant level of 10ach, to 6 ach when occupied and 4ach when unoccupied. Total cost: $9m, 11 year payback.

Metering: Campus buildings should have their own meters so that departments can be billed for their energy use. (This alone can lead to a 2-5% reduction in energy consumption.) Departments can be given a certain budget for energy use, and allowed to keep any savings and forced to pay the difference when their use is higher. Ideally, buildings would have sub-meters to further break down energy consumption. Sub-metering helps measure impact of behavior change programs by making it easier to set benchmarks. Otherwise, changes such as shutting the sash can be lost in the overall noise of whole building energy use. 6University Role: Behavior ChangeSash management: Energy-saving only for VAV fume hoods, though has safety benefits in all cases. Harvards program set goals for labs (i.e., an average ventilation level