Are We Saving Energy?
Durham - How are you doing when it comes to conserving energy? How about when it comes to little things like unplugging your rechargers when not in use or leaving the TV on simply for background noise? More than not, when it comes to saving energy there are still areas we can all improve in. Energy wasted costs all of us in the long run. Likewise energy saved is energy earned.
University Honors students taking chemical engineering Professor Ihab Farag’s Energy and Environment course took on the challenge to go out in the community targeting buildings such as the Durham Firehouse, Christensen Hall, Hubbard Hall, Oyster River School, Stokes Hall, T-Hall, the existing UNH fleet, and the new UNH fleet, with the objective to obtain a better understanding of what energy is being used and where it might be saved. They reported back with their findings during the last week of class in December 2007.
One presentation showed how a clever idea back in 1950 was to heat the then new Durham Firehouse facility with steam heat, which was piped from room to room. However a long history later of complaints about the firehouse’s heating and cooling system, reveal inefficiencies. The Durham Firehouse is a multiuse building running off of a central steam line and has six open bays for vehicles. Environmental Engineering freshman, Steven Rzepka, noted, “The firehouse is putting a lot of heat and resources into heating the bays, which with the pipes located in the ceiling, most of it is just going out the bay doors or up through the metal ceiling, leaving very little heat to reach the floor.”
A central steam line works with hot steam being piped from the boiler to each successive room. Consequently users at the end of the line receive less heat, while users at the front of the line receive too much. UNH chemical engineering freshmen and university honors students Jay Anastasiades, Steven Rzepka and Josh Stawarz’s suggest, “fixing some of the heating/cooling issues will save energy and make the firehouse more ‘livable.’ We recommend that the Durham Firehouse ensure all steam pipes are insulated, develop a building wide cooling plan (e.g. choose air conditioning or open windows rather than use both), keep bay heating to a minimum, and put heating fans on a separate pipe system so steam is not becoming super-heated.”
In addition to helping address the nation’s energy crisis there is the opportunity to apply for an Energy Star rating. Calculating a rating is a measurable method in discovering where and how energy is spent and/or saved. Last April five UNH buildings (Randall Hitchcock, Sawyer, Jessie Doe, Woodsides PQR, and Taylor Hall) were awarded with the ENERGY STAR rating. “I am pleased that our effort made UNH the first university in the nation to receive an Energy Star Label for one of its dorms. This is an excellent case of our UNH students working to benefit the community where they live,” commented Farag.
The data that the Environment and Energy students collected reflected significant improvements in energy usage during campus energy awareness campaigns. Significant enough in fact to raise dorms such as Christensen, Hubbard and Stokes Halls’ ratings to well above the average with scores of 65, 73 and 77 respectively. Translated that means that with a score of 73, Hubbard alone had energy savings amounting to approximately $30,000 per year. Not a bad figure in anyone’s book.
UNH campus energy manager, Mathew O’Keefe noted that, “Unfortunately, Hubbard and four other dorms (Babcock, Christensen, Stokes, and Williamson) are all electrically heated. This is a very inefficient way to heat buildings in our climate, so we will probably never be able to get Energy Star labels for those, but we have seen tremendous improvements in their energy intensity levels (Energy Star ratings going up). The combination of more student awareness (the annual Energy Challenge) and class participation in energy efficiency work on campus (like the students in ChE 410 Environment and Energy) have been consistently improving residential energy efficiency for UNH housing facilities.”
Energy Star is a program to rate electrical appliances, light bulbs, buildings and the like. It is based upon a scale from 1-100 (1 being the poorest energy efficiency, 100 being the highest energy efficiency). In the case of buildings, one must score a 75 or higher in order to qualify for the label. Requirements for qualification are quite stringent, taking into account electrical usage, square footage of the building, use of fuels for heating, use of air conditioning, and occupancy as well as the all important livability.
-30-
Chemical Engineering 410 Fall 2007 Environment and Energy: Energy Star Projects
Hubbard Hall and Durham/UNH Fire Dept
Jason Anastasiades, Steven J Rzepka and Joshua E Stawarz (quoted above)
Christensen and T-Hall
Philip R Fabens-Jones, Lauren C Hyde and Kaley A Smith
Stokes Hall and Oyster River School
Andrew H Corsini, Anne L Dignard and Erica A Sgrignuoli
New UNH fleet:
Jakob H Bastian, Patrick R Connelly, Kathryn E Early, and Craig M Martin
Existing UNH fleet
Jesse S Gagnon, Amy E Lamb, Xiameng (Michelle) Liu, Mary K McNamara, and Jillian M Tombarelli
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTO AND CAPTION:
http://www.ceps.unh.edu/images/firehouse_bays.jpg
“The firehouse is putting a lot of heat and resources into heating the bays, which with the pipes located in the ceiling, most of it is just going out the bay doors or up through the metal ceiling, leaving very little heat to reach the floor.”
