GreenClips.152 09.27.00 NEW LABEL TO HELP SCHOOLS LEARN EFFICIENCY LESSONS The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expanded its Energy Star Building Label to include primary and secondary schools. The program combines benchmarking with recognition for top performance to help decision-makers understand the operating efficiency of their facilities. While time-consuming, the benchmarking process is relatively simple. After logging on to the EPA site, accessing the benchmarking tool and creating an account, it's a matter of inputting data: gross square footage for each site, 12 months of energy-consumption data for each fuel type, number of students and occupancy hours. The result is an automatic score comparing the energy performance of one school to others nationwide. Schools earning 75 or higher qualify for the Label. So far, the results have been positive. At Milwaukee Public Schools, benchmarking will help to justify plans for future upgrades. And benchmarking is opening the eyes of some energy managers. "Many of our schools are the exact same layout, and while one scored 100, one scored below 75," says Joe Cochran Jr. of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). "Now we can go back and look at the historical data and find the red flags." Cochran hopes that at schools that did not receive a Label, students and teachers will be more conscious of their actions and more proactive about energy conservation. More: http://www.epa.gov/buildings/label. Building Operating Management, Sep 00, by Kathryn M. Rospond. LABS HAVE HIGH POTENTIAL FOR ENERGY SAVINGS Laboratory buildings use energy intensively, predominantly for moving and conditioning air, and for running scientific equipment and instrumentation. When designing labs, simple, low- or no-cost energy-efficiency strategies should be considered, such as nighttime setback, sash height reductions, daylighting, or savings from re-evaluating air change requirements. Lab ventilation standards typically range from 8 to 12 changes per hour, with higher hazard labs as high as 15 to 20 air changes per hour. But Jon Crane, lab director for design firm CUH2A in Atlanta, feels that "with proper primary containment devices, a baseline of eight air changes per hour can generally be instituted as a standard in higher hazard labs with a nighttime setback to four air changes per hour." While an expert should evaluate individual cases, this recommendation usually can greatly reduce energy consumption for ventilation without compromising safety. Although natural ventilation can't be used in labs that require control of chemical fumes or aerosols, it should be considered for offices or public spaces located outside of the lab areas. Other energy-efficiency strategies include using heat claim from lab equipment and recycling the return air from office areas as fresh air in the laboratories. For more information: smendler@cuh2a or jphillips@cuh2a. Environmental Design + Construction, Sep-Oct 00, p 30, by Sandra Mendler and Joseph Phillips. ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT GUIDES RESIDENTIAL REMODEL When two professors of ecology and community design hired Arkin Tilt Architects to enlarge and open the kitchen of their 700-square-foot 1920s bungalow in Berkeley, California, they found partners who shared their dedication to recycling and zero-waste specifications. In their $55,000 addition/remodel, David Arkin and Anni Tilt transformed the clients' kitchen, adding an efficient 28 square feet on the home's garden side and extending the space by enclosing an old laundry porch. Clients and architects shared a sense of stewardship about limited resources, meaning that wherever possible the building integrated reprocessed or used materials, and that construction waste was kept to a minimum. The project's recycled elements include a salvaged stained-glass window, a countertop of recycled automotive glass, and an 1882 railroad tie used as a steel beam. With large, salvaged windows, a glazed door and clerestory lights beneath a new curving corrugated metal roof, the formerly dark laundry room is now animated by daylight. And a cladding of old license plates on the addition--arranged by the client and contractor in a Mondrian-inspired pattern--whimsically plays off the bungalow's original wood shakes. Architectural Record, Jul 00, p 224, by Lisa Findley. [For a project summary, go to http://www.architecturalrecord.com/PROJECTS/JULY00/PEOPLE/LICPLATE.ASP] THREE OVERLOOKED WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY While running Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Cool $ense Integrated Chiller Retrofit program, Lisa Gartland tracked down 15 case studies intended to demonstrate the benefits of integrating load reduction measures and cooling system improvements. Instead, most of these projects revealed that building owners and managers frequently overlook three retrofit measures--daylighting, cool roofing and equipment downsizing--with significant potential for energy savings. Most of the buildings studied were retrofitted with highly efficient fluorescent lamps using electronic ballasts, and in many of them occupancy sensors were also installed to automatically control lights. But only one building--San Francisco's Phillip Burton Federal Building--added daylighting controls. During a test period from June to December 1998, occupancy sensors alone saved 20 to 26 percent of lighting energy. Adding daylighting sensors saved another 27 percent, for a combined savings of 46 percent. None of the 15 buildings studied were retrofitted with a high-reflectivity, high-emissivity "cool" roof, and worse, none of the designers or managers responsible for these retrofits recognized any connection between their roof and their cooling bills. Equipment downsizing was also overlooked. The average capacity of the old chillers was 260 tons per 100,000 square feet, and the replacement chiller average capacity was 245 tons--a minimal decrease considering these buildings could have easily downsized their capacity by 20 percent or more. And this same problem of oversizing has been found in smaller equipment, such as motors. - The Construction Specifier, Sep 00, by Lisa Gartland. [Full text: http://www.csinet.org/xp/p-cs/i-2000090101/a-968359975/article.view]. SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY PLANNED NEAR VANCOUVER Vancouver's Hotson Bakker Architects has planned a model sustainable community for the Burnaby Mountain campus of Simon Fraser University (SFU). Construction is expected to start in early 2002. The plan includes 4,500 residential units for approximately 10,000 residents in two neighborhoods on 200 acres of land. A mixed-use commercial main street will form the heart of the community. "SFU wants this to be a model community," says principal Norm Hotson, "so it has high aspirations for this development. We're constructing a sustainability framework that sets forth ten basic planning principles. The goal is to produce a new community that would be environmentally sensitive and lead to a better strategy for dealing with issues such as stormwater and public transportation. This is tough on this site because it's isolated up on the mountain." Architectural Record, Sep 00, p 42, by John Gracey. [More: http://www.sfu.ca/bmcp] DEBATE ON NEED FOR NEW POWER PLANTS IGNORES CONSERVATION New Yorkers heard a lot this summer about why their electricity bills were going up and why new power plants are needed, and the message centered on one word: demand. What the public was not told was that the people framing the argument for building power plants have an abiding interest in selling more electricity. Before New York's energy markets were deregulated, beginning in 1998, the state required companies like Consolidated Edison to reduce demand if that choice was cheaper than building a new plant. State regulatory officials also decided in the late 1990's to reduce spending for conservation and efficiency measures. Under deregulation, power generating companies have no motive to encourage people to use less energy. Demand-reduction programs have become a threat to electricity companies' profits, says Edward A. Smeloff of the Pace Law School Energy Project. And competition hasn't yet given rise to companies specializing in selling ways to cut energy use through technology or better management. Much of the demand growth is driven by the spread of air-conditioning. "We have hotter summers because of greenhouse gases and more greenhouse gases because of more air-conditioning," said Joseph Romm of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions in Virginia. "It would certainly be ironic if people decided that the solution was more power plants." The New York Times, 26 Sep 00, p A23, by Kirk Johnson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to individual members and these sponsors: COLLINS & AIKMAN FLOORING We choose not to just make carpet but to also make a difference. http://www.powerbond.com ENERGY RESOURCE CENTER http://www.socalgas.com/erc Find out if you can reduce your energy costs by bypassing the grid, and generating your own electricity. New micro-turbine technology now allows even smaller businesses to take advantage of this strategy. This seminar, On-Site Generation: More Power to You, provides a broad overview of on-site power generation, both distributed generation and cogeneration. Discussion will include an update on non-polluting fuel cell technology, a review of regulatory issues, including air quality. 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