THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012
PAGE 9
CAMPUS
Energy audit saves University $1.8M
JESSICA TIERNEY
jtierney@kansan.com
With changes both big and small, the University continues its efforts to be a greener campus.
After beginning a new energy audit in 2009, the University is now assessing how much energy was saved as a result of the various upgrades across campus.
The $25 million contract with Energy Solutions Professionals (ESP), an efficiency firm in Overland Park, began in 2009 and was mostly completed in the early months of 2012. The project was large-scale and included approximately 50-60 buildings on University grounds.
"A lot of the major work was done in Malott and Haworth Halls. Those buildings use a lot of energy because of the laboratory spaces and the energy needed for ventilation," said Jeff Severin, director of the University's Center for Sustainability.
A walk by Malott Hall, home of the chemistry department, shows just
how much ventilation is needed in the building. The roof is a crowded maze with various vents and air systems.
"I can see why they'd make some changes," said Heidi LeSage, graduate student from Minneapolis. "Malott has so much going on inside it."
Laboratories use an immense amount of energy because of the large number of fume hoods on the buildings. The fume hoods help to ventilate the spaces where experiments are taking place. The air that is removed then has to be replaced with conditioned air. The costs of ventilation can very quickly add up.
According to Paul Graves, deputy director in the University's Office of Design and Construction Management, this problem was solved by retrofitting the fume hoods in Malott and Haworth and installing a new ventilation system.
"Electric, which includes some heating, and most cooling is the highest (utility bill for the University), said Graves.
The audit made other changes on
campus as well.
"There is a motion sensor on the hallway lights outside my office," said Severin of his office in Carruth-O'Leary. "They only light up when someone is walking by."
Lights like the ones in Severin's building were installed in approximately 50-60 other buildings across campus. Faucets and toilets were fitted or replaced with low flow fixtures to save on water expenses as well.
In addition to the physical changes
made to buildings, the audit also encouraged behavioral changes by students, faculty and staff.
In the fall, student volunteers were trained to replace inefficient light bulbs on campus with more cost-effective ones, and in the spring, a competition was held between Bailey, Green, and Summerfield Halls to compare energy use in 2012 from the same time in 2011. The building using the smallest amount was awarded with a barbeque lunch. Bailey Hall won.
Even simple tasks such as turning off the lights in an empty classroom or a firm but gentle reminder to a professor to turn off their computer when they leave a classroom were encouraged.
Behavioral changes alone were expected to save the university $200,000 per year.
Severin said the entire audit should save about $1.8 million per year.
—Edited by Megan Hinman
KU took on a similar project in 2000, but the current contract has given the University the most savings so far.
CRIME
contract with CMS Viron Energy Services saved 1.7 million
KC woman charged with child abuse
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City woman was charged Saturday with abusing her 10-year-old daughter who weighed just 32 pounds when she was found locked in a closet that reeked of urine.
The 29-year-old woman faces charges of assault and child abuse and endangerment in Jackson County Circuit Court. The Associated Press is not naming the mother to protect the child's identity. Prosecutors are requesting that bond be set at $200,000.
Officers freed the girl after responding Friday morning to a call to a child abuse hotline. Neighbors told police that they didn't know the malnourished child taken from the public housing complex even lived there.
When officers first arrived, two women told the officers that the mother had left about 20 minutes earlier with two girls, whom they described as "clean and well fed," a Kansas City officer said in the probable cause statement.
A social services worker said there should be three children at the home. But the women insisted, "No, we have lived here for several years, and she only has two daughters that stay here, and we have never seen the other girl, but we heard she stays with the father or an aunt," the probable cause statement said.
Officers ultimately made their way into the apartment, where they found a portable crib pushed up against a bedroom closet, which was tied closed. The officers asked if anyone was inside, and a child's voice answered "yes," the probable cause statement said.
The girl was transported to a Children's Mercy Hospital, where she was diagnosed with multiple skin injuries. Hospital staff said she had gained just 6 pounds since she last was at the hospital six years earlier.
The girl told officers that her mother took her sisters out to breakfast, but she didn't go because "she messes herself."
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