By Lewis Tagliaferre

Recent research suggests that leaders in energy management are able to achieve superior financial gains, as well as help clean up the overall environment and gain a competitive advantage. Whether your business is commercial, industrial, or institutional, energy is important – managing it strengthens your bottom line.

I usually don’t think that much comes of government-sponsored programs to change human behavior because people won’t change until it hurts too much not to. But, there is one exception, which is worth your time to investigate and (maybe) join. The ENERGY STAR program, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), offers a proven strategy for superior energy management, with many tools and resources to help out with each step along the way. Based on the successful practices of ENERGY STAR partners, the EPA says, “These guidelines for energy management can assist your staff in improving its energy and financial performance while distinguishing your company as an environmental leader.” The agency website is full of excellent information and technical aids to get you started and keep up with the pace of leaders among building owners and managers.

The ENERGY STAR Challenge calls all businesses and institutions to identify opportunities where financially attractive improvements can reduce energy use by 10 percent or more, and to make the improvements now through proven methods such as low-cost building tune-ups, lighting upgrades, and replacement of old HVAC equipment with modern, efficient technology.

The ENERGY STAR Challenge is promoting three important actions:

• Determine how much energy buildings are actually using. The EPA offers a national energy-performance rating system that scores a building’s energy efficiency on a scale of 1 to 100, relative to similar buildings across the country. Buildings with lower ratings are typically good candidates for improvement, as the low rating reflects an inefficient operation or obsolete technology. The rating system is available for office buildings, schools, hotels, hospitals, and grocery stores, among others.
• Establish efficiency-improvement goals. An efficiency-improvement goal of 10 percent or greater should be established for a portfolio of buildings as a whole, or for as many buildings as possible.
• Make improvements. The EPA will recognize businesses and organizations that make improvements to their buildings and share their results. By meeting or beating their goals, these organizations are protecting the environment and improving their bottom line.
  The EPA reports that many organizations are participating in the ENERGY STAR Challenge and helping to build a better world. Some states are also encouraging improvements across government buildings and facilities, including school districts and county/ city governments, and reaching out to businesses in their communities. Leading associations are participating by developing industry-specific campaigns to help their members benefit from improved energy efficiency. Many businesses and organizations already have demonstrated improvement across their buildings and have earned the special designation of ENERGY STAR Leader as a result of their efforts. Here are some examples of building owners/managers who have earned the ENERGY STAR label listed by EPA.

Office Buildings
Arden Realty Inc., with over 240 buildings in seven markets, is the largest commercial office landlord in Southern California, operating over 18 million rentable square feet with an additional 285,000 square feet under development. The company reported, “We have completed 32 HVAC plant retrofits, 47 energy-management systems, 20 carbon-monoxide sensor projects, and 117 individual building lighting retrofits, including occupancy-sensor installation. Arden Realty has also completed seven cogeneration plants and one solar photovoltaic array with a total capacity of 3 megawatts.” Typical annual energy consumption is 57kBTU/sf.

500 Park Boulevard, owned by National Office Partners LP, is a 14-story, 450,000-square-foot office building in The Chancellory, the premier office park in the Chicago suburb of Itasca, IL. The ENERGY STAR was earned by 500 Park Boulevard as the result of both retrofitting and of energy-conscious management. The property has been outfitted with a Carrier Energy Management System (EMS), which is used to monitor and/or control much of the energy-consuming infrastructure in the building. For example, the EMS is used to control all common-area building lighting. In addition, fan controls throughout the building have been retrofitted with enthalpy control, and controls on all fan boxes and variable air volume (VAV) boxes have been retrofitted for maximum efficiency. Total annual energy use averages 56kBTU/sf.

Hotels
In the fall of 1997, representatives from Wingate Inn Intl. Inc. (owners of Bozeman’s Wingate Inn) met to investigate energy-efficiency opportunities available in the Montana market. What followed were months of interaction between Wingate Inn, Montana Power, and Energy Engineering, the developers of an Interrogated Pipe System (IPS) heating and air-conditioning system. The IPS works by assigning “double duty” to a building’s piping – tapping the fire-sprinkler piping to also serve as chilled-water piping, and the domestic hot-water system to also provide heating. The piping is then controlled by a wall-mounted thermostat in each guest suite.

The owners of Wingate Inn were impressed by the potential energy and dollar savings of the IPS, projected to be approximately $31,000 net per year, with a simple payback calculated at just over 1 year. Wingate Inn of Bozeman opened in April 1999, with the electrical and maintenance savings garnered by the IPS paying for the initial added cost of the system within 1 year. Energy and cost savings have continued to surpass projections each year since, and (most importantly) customers continue to give the HVAC system’s quiet and comfortable operation rave reviews. Annual energy consumption averages 94kBTU/sf.

Hospitals
Triad Health Systems’ Kosciusko Community Hospital is located in Warsaw, IN. The original facility was built in 1976 and spans 195,899 square feet. It operates the county’s only 24-hour Emergency Care Center and the county’s only birthing center. Mike Scott, manager of plant operations, offers this account of the ENERGY STAR award: “We began looking at energy-performance upgrade opportunities in the 1990s. We continue to upgrade to more energy-efficient technologies when equipment needs to be replaced.”

Below are some of the energy-efficient technologies employed:

• Lighting. Magnetic ballast T-12 fluorescent lights were replaced with more efficient, electronic ballast T-8 lamps. Occupancy sensors have been placed in areas that are not constantly in use, such as bathrooms and offices.
• Fan Systems.New motors with more efficient variable frequency drives were installed on all air-handlers. The air-handlers have digital controls that adjust for occupancy and control steam and humidity.
• HVAC. A new, smaller, more-efficient boiler that produces enough steam to heat the hospital was installed. This new boiler replaced a larger, less-efficient boiler, which is reserved for back-up.
• Domestic Water Heater.Water is heated with the exhaust gases of the boiler. As a result, domestic water heaters remain idle most of the time.
• Windows. In August 2005, they began replacing all windows in the hospital, as the old windows had substantial leaking.

Operations and maintenance include equipment tune-ups and preventive maintenance measures. Air-handlers are checked each year to ensure that temperature settings are accurate and that systems are calibrated as needed.

After the energy-efficiency upgrade projects in the 1990s, annual natural gas savings between 10 and 18 percent, and electricity savings of 30 percent, were recorded when compared to the same month in the previous year. Savings permitted the addition of a new front lobby area, while energy consumption continued to decline. “Conserving energy is the right thing to do, not only because it provides lower operating costs for the hospital, but also because it improves the health of our community, which is one of our core values at Kosciusko Community Hospital,” says Scott.