Building Energy Reduction and Integrating Sustainable Building Practices

Summary

In response to the increased awareness of energy, water and general environmental impacts of buildings on the UGA campus and society at large, a continuing program is in place for reducing energy and water use through building audits. This program is being transitioned to other campuses within the Georgia university system as well. I am also expanding my outreach to the public and society by giving invited presentations on green buildings and sustainable design through the U.S. and internationally.

Situation

A wide ranging increase in public awareness of environmental problems occurred in the U.S. during the past few years. This has been particularly true nationally with the topic of global climate change and here in Georgia with energy and water supply and conservation. The built environment (buildings and their associated utilities) account for a significant percentage of the energy and water consumption in society, and also account for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. (second only to transportation). At UGA and within the state university system, energy costs continue to remain high after the initial large escalation in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane season. The increase in energy costs put a strain on already tight budgets. The advent of another serious drought situation meant an increased focus on campus water consumption starting in 2007 as well. Thomas Friedman recently published a book titled "Hot, Flat and Crowded", in which he takes a look at the rapid changing of the world through climate change, population growth and globalization. This work is follow-on to his highly acclaimed "The World is Flat". In this 2008 book, Friedman urges the U.S. to become a world leader in developing 'green' technologies needed for the coming era he calls the “Energy-Climate Era”. Without becoming a leader in these technologies, he fears that the U.S. will be shunted aside by other nations.

Response

The approach I take in this area emphasizes a combination of near-term local solutions combined with national and international efforts to develop and promote a more sustainable built environment. The work is funded primarily by UGA through Engineering Outreach for continuation of campus building energy conservation programs, but also includes other outside funding sources. This work is done not just by myself, but by the group I direct which includes Jason Perry within Engineering Outreach and with the assistance of several UGA engineering student assistants. UGA and University System Energy and Water Conservation Program The building energy conservation program initiated in 2006 for UGA Athens campus buildings was continued in 2008. This program was also expanded to include program management and technical support for a Sustainable Energy Management Program for the University System of Georgia (USG). This program is under the overall leadership of UGA's President Michael F. Adams, who is the "President in charge" of this initiative within the university system. This energy audit program began as a means to help control energy costs for facility operations at UGA. Since that time, we have evolved the program to include other important topics, such as recommissioning by identifying problems in operation of the systems, water consumption and the overall environmental benefits to society. During 2008, energy and water audits were completed on the new CCRC building and the Center for Applied Genetics and Technology (CAGT) building. Work began in the fall of 2008 on the main Vet School building, with this hopefully being completed by the end of 2008 or at least early 2009. The final report on the energy and water audit conducted at the Riverbend North and South building complex in the later part of 2007 was released in January 2008. The final reports on the CCRC and CAGT buildings were presented to UGA's Physical Plant Division (PPD) for consideration and implementation of the items identified. Several of the smaller items in these audits, such as adjusting of penthouse unit heater setpoints such that they were not simultaneously heating and cooling and the setting of the daylighting controller in a stairwell of the CAGT building, were done as part of our work. We have increased dramatically the focus on water conservation items during 2008. A detailed design for a condensate collection system from the air handling units at Riverbend South was prepared and will be used by PPD for installation. The potential for condensate collection was identified during our audit of this facility in 2007, and it is expected to collect up to 1.6 million gallons of water per year. The system design is fairly simple, as it is intended to just collect the condensate and pump it to the basin sump of the building's cooling tower, displacing the need for city water makeup. Design for this system was based on lessons learned from an initial test of a condensate collection system installed on the Main Library Annex in spring of 2008. Engineering Outreach will be taking this design and applying to other buildings where the amount of collected condensate will be high. We will do this for buildings that we already have identified as having high potential and relatively easy to implement (such as the CCRC and Vet School) as well as to survey other buildings that have good potential based on water use records. This work will continue through the end of 2008 and into 2009. For the Sustainable Energy Management Program within the USG, I help direct the collection and analysis of energy and water use from all 35 member institutions. This work included a lot of analysis, data checking, collaboration with the USG staff and the facilities directors at each institution. The result was the completion of the benchmark data for fiscal year 2007, which will be used as the point of reference going forward as we proceed with the implementation of this program. Total energy use and energy cost are expressed in terms of annual Btu/ft² of floor area for resident instruction and annual $/ft² for energy cost were compiled. These are the standard point of reference used within the industry for comparing building energy performance. The USG has as an overarching goal of energy consumption within our facilities to meet "best-in-class" status with peer institutions across the country. A grant proposal was submitted to the U.S. EPA in August 2008 for support of certain key tasks in implementing the USG energy program, as well as for research on the potential for implementation of new bioenergy production measures that can be readily adopted at UGA. This proposal was in collaboration with Dr. K.C. Das in Biological and Agricultural Engineering and has a value of $574,000. We hope to hear results if this will be awarded by the end of 2008. I also am conducting an energy audit of two buildings at the Gainesville State campus under contract from the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources and the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA). This work was completed in the early part of 2008 and helped us develop the procedures for how we might conduct similar work for other smaller campuses within the USG in support of the overall energy program for the Board of Regents. A smaller scale energy audit program begun in 2007 for energy auditing of dairy operations continues. This work is primarily being done by Jason Perry, but is being coordinated as part of our larger energy program within Engineering Outreach. Special funding from GEFA for this work is being provided and is done in support of John Worley and the Agricultural Extension program. I also helped direct a team of professionals within CAES in evaluating the potential for energy and water conservation at research stations, using the Plains Southwest Georgia Research and Education Center as the test case for study. A final report on this work was submitted in September 2008. Sustainable Development – National and International Focus On a national and international scale, I was named in 2007 as a “Distinguished Lecturer” on green design and sustainability issues within ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers). This appointment allows for a means for my visiting chapters and regional conferences within this international organization, with the society paying costs for the visits. To date, I have given approximately 30 talks to a wide range of audiences and locals across the U.S., Canada and the rest of the world. In 2008, outside the U.S. talks were given in: Montreal and Calgary, Canada; Jaipur and Mumbai, India; Hong Kong (three separate presentations); Singapore; and Taiwan. I also conducted an international on-line webinar on the proposed ASHRAE Standard 189.1 for High Performance Green Buildings in September 2008, which was 'attended' by 55 people. Being a Distinguished Lecturer for ASHRAE is leading to invitations to speak at a number of other events and organizations. During 2008 I spoke at the following events: • Focus the Nation, national environmental event consisting of local meetings and conferences in January 2008. • Keynote speaker for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources annual spring environmental retreat. • The National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN in August 2008. • The UGA Faculty of Engineering monthly meeting in September 2008 • The Southern Gas Associations biannual conference for engineers and architects in Naples, FL in October 2008. I continue to be an invited presenter at a twice yearly series of short courses on "Mechanical Design for Green Buildings" conducted by the University of Wisconsin – Madison. This course was started in 2005 and will continue into 2009 at least. I also continue to be an active participant in committee and special activities within ASHRAE. This included participation in the Standard 189.1 Special Project Committee which completed work on a new draft standard on “High Performance Green Buildings”. The standard is written to be adopted as part of the model building codes in the U.S. and internationally. In addition, I am: Chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee on “Building Environmental Impact and Sustainability"; on the society's Handbook Committee overseeing production of the annual reference books provided to the membership; a member of the committee which prepared the position paper for ASHRAE on Global Climate Change. During 2008 work was essentially completed on the development of an online learning course based on the ASHRAE GreenGuide. This project is being done as a sponsored project from the publishing company Elsevier and in cooperation with ASHRAE. Local Projects In 2008 UGA was awarded a contract from the warehouse development firm IDI, Inc. to support their activities to have more sustainable business operations. I am a co-PI on this project with work concerning the energy consumption of their buildings and the potential for using renewable energy. Work will continue on this project into the first part of 2009. I am working to support the preliminary design activities for a new School of Ecology building. This study is being done using funding from a grant the School of Ecology received from the R. Howard Dobbs Foundation, with a portion of this funding to include my participation in the study. I am working with the Office of University Architects, members of the School of Ecology building project team as well as the architectural firm chosen to prepare the preliminary design package. The intent is for this building project to represent a major pushing of the envelope in terms of sustainable (green building) design, and hopefully this will become a major signature piece for the UGA campus as a whole. The preliminary design will be used during fund raising efforts by the School of Ecology for this building. I also am assisting the Office of University Architects with the energy analysis and modeling for new building projects on the Athens campus, such as the Tate building expansion project. I continued my assistance to the Waseca Learning Environment Montessori School in Athens as design progressed on a new facility that they are intending to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. Through the course of this project, I have served as advisor to their project manager as well as preparing the energy simulation modeling needed for the LEED certification submittals. The work is currently stalled due to funding needs and it is uncertain if it will continue into 2009. Other small projects within Engineering Outreach were done for a local engineering/architectural firm (Armentrout, Roebuck and Matheny) and Energy Ace, Inc out of Atlanta with building energy modeling and analysis; these projects were done for a small fee using a general consulting account created in 2008 for this purpose. I provided a rough level analysis of the potential for installation of ground source heat pumps at the UGA Marine Extension Service building in Brunswick. In addition, I along with Jason Perry have been helping with an evaluation of energy conservation measures and heating/air system problems for the Board of Regents OIIT (information technology) building in Oconee County. This work is also being conducted as part of the general consulting process for Outreach. In the fall of 2008, I established a new collaboration with Dr. Erica Reyherd within the School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Reyherd's research focuses on acoustics of building systems and its architecture. My initial collaboration will be to serve as an advisor and graduate committee member for one of her new graduate students, and this may also lead to future research or outreach activities. In addition, I am serving as a graduate committee member for a Masters of Landscape Architecture student working under the direction of Dr. Pratt Cassity.

Impact

Key results from the building energy audits and USG energy program completed in 2008 are: • Energy and water conservation measures that were recommended in energy and water audit reports for the UGA Athens campus during 2008 to date would result in a total annual savings of 546,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, 42,900 therms of natural gas, and 3.7 million gallons of site water. In financial terms this represents $96,500 in annual energy and water cost savings, with a total 10-year net present value of about $700,000. The electricity and natural gas savings would result in the avoidance of about 535 tons of CO2e emissions per year. • An additional audit is ongoing on the Vet School main building as of the date of this impact report, which should result in a significant amount of additional savings opportunities. For example, during the initial work for this audit, I identified one huge source of water waste. This concerned a "once through" cooling process for an air compressor and vacuum pump. This old technical approach of using tap water to cool a piece of equipment and then send it down the drain was supposedly eliminated from UGA facilities during an emergency program to conserve water in 2007, but somehow was missed. The air compressor system itself used a significant amount of water due to a failed valve that was stuck open. The combined water wastage from these two sources alone was measured and it amounts to 1.6% of total water consumption from the UGA campus and which costs UGA $18,400 annually for water/sewer charges. The water consumption was measured to equal a rate of just over 10,000 gallons per day, or about 3.6 million gallons per year. Within several hours of notifying PPD of this situation, it had been fixed by the operations and maintenance group. • To help identify exactly what is "best-in-class" energy consumption performance for the USG campuses, I made contact with and surveyed a number of campuses across the country regarding their energy consumption and identified a couple of past reports that attempted to do this as well. Based on data collected with our survey, the four research institutions within USG (UGA, Georgia Tech, the Medical College and Georgia State) are just about average for similar institutions across the U.S. However, the USG schools would have to reduce energy consumption per ft² by approximately 1/3 in order to reach "best-in-class' status; thus there is a great need for continued work in this area all across the University System of Georgia. • For the Board of Regents OIIT building in Oconee County, I identified the actual source of moisture and condensation problems within the building's main air handling units. This problem has plagued the building since opening several years ago, and I also provided a third party review of the mechanical contractor's proposed solutions to this and other problems to the building owner/operator (who is leasing the building to the Board of Regents in a lease/purchase arrangement). • During 2008 I gave nearly 30 invited lecture and presentations to various groups round the globe on the subject of sustainable urban design, green buildings and overall global climate issues. These sessions had a combined total attendance of approximately 1,200 people, which gave wide exposure to UGA and the engineering programs we have. Talks were given in a number of U.S. cities, plus Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and Moncton in Canada, Jaipur and Mumbai in India, as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. A second Far East trip is in the making for mid-December, which would include another strip to Hong Kong plus Indonesia and Malaysia. These presentations also allowed for establishing initial contacts with potential collaborators at other universities and industry partners, which in particular would be valuable for UGA's new Environmental Engineering program. • A second draft of the proposed ASHRAE Standard 189.1 for “High Performance Green Buildings” was completed in early 2008 and underwent a public review process. Based on comments received on this highly complex and important new standard, third draft will be developed starting in late 2008 and continuing into 2009. ASHRAE Technical Committee TC 2.8 (“Buildings Impact on the Environment and Sustainability”) is a highly visible committee within ASHRAE, and my role as chair leads to increased visibility of UGA and the engineering programs. ASHRAE has been committed to becoming the leader in the field of sustainable design in the built environment and has approximately 65,000 members in chapters worldwide. • The increased level of activity within Georgia and on the UGA campus is leading to UGA and UGA's Engineering Outreach program in being a leader in the energy and water conservation area, as well in the topic of green buildings and sustainable design practices.

State Issue

Conservation & Management of Natural Resources

Details

• Year: 2008
• Geographic Scope: International
• County: Clarke
• Program Areas:
  • Agriculture & Natural Resources