WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2008 News WWW.KANSAN.COM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
17
BY MIKE NOLAN mnolan@kansan.com
The Multidisciplinary Research Facility uses more British thermal units per square foot than any other building on campus. Steve Spurgeon, director of communications for Chevron Energy Solutions, said it was normal for a research lab to use the most energy because of the high powered equipment.
MULTIDISCPLINARY RESEARCH FACILITY
The least green building on campus is the Multidisciplinary Research Facility, 2030 Becker Dr., behind the Park and Ride lot on the northwest side of 23rd and Iowa streets.
The facility uses more British thermal units (Btu) per square foot, 430,106, than any building on campus. A Btu equals the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Btu measures both the amounts of natural gas and electricity a building uses.
That number is three times what the U.S. Department of Energy determined as normal for a university building.
The fact that the facility uses this much energy might suggest the building wastes energy, but Steve Spurgeon, director of communications for Chevron Energy Solutions, said it was normal for a research lab to use the most energy because of the high-powered equipment.
"You can't change the nature of a building;" Spurgeon said.
The University signed a 20-year energy performance contract with Chevron in 2001. The University hired Chevron as a way to make
the campus more energy efficient, which in turn would lower its energy bills and save the University money.
The performance contract consisted of four phases. First, Chevron conducted an ener-
not practical.
"In some cases you would have to spend $2 million to save $100,000,"
There were no mystery buildings. We were not pulling our hair wondering why a building used so much energy as it did."
Spurgeon said the age and construction of each building determined what sort of equipment Chevron could install. He said the older the building, the more difficult it was to fix and sometimes, it was
The next phase was the construction phase during which Chevron installed new equipment such as more efficient heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units and fluorescent light bulbs in campus buildings.
gy audit of 85 campus buildings. During the audit, Chevron looked at each building to find where they wasted energy and what could be done to improve energy efficiency.
STEVE SPURGEON Director of communications for Chevron Energy Solutions
Spurgeon said.
A f t e r Chevron completed construction, the commissioning phase began. During this phase the contractors made sure everything installed during construction
Chevron is now in the monitoring phase, which began in June 2004, and it provides a quarterly report of the 85 campus buildings it monitors.
was performing correctly. This process lasted roughly three years.
The results showed that the Multidisciplinary Research Facility used the most energy, but other campus buildings near the top of the list included Simmons Bioscience Laboratory, Malott Hall and Haworth Hall.
OTHER 'UNGREEN' SCIENCE BUILDINGS
These buildings were science
buildings where faculty and students conducted research and did lab work. The labs consume the energy, but as Spurgeon said the building's nature cannot be altered, so scientists must sacrifice energy in the name of scientific exploration.
Spurgeon said there were no anomalies on campus. That is Chevron did not find buildings on campus that wasted energy unnecessarily. It found buildings that could
improve efficiency,but the buildings that used the most energy had obvious reasons.
"There were no mystery buildings," Spurgeon said. "We were not pulling our hair wondering why a building used as much energy as it did."
Chevron will monitor the University's buildings until 2021. The goal for Chevron is to lower the University's energy usage as much as possible because the company makes its money based on how much the University saves on energy costs.
"We guarantee an amount before hand," Spurgeon said. "But places usually end up saving more than that."
"In some cases you would have to spend $2 million to save $100,000."
STUDENT HOUSING
The energy performance contract does not include campus housing buildings. Diana Robertson, director of the Department of Student Housing, said her department did its own maintenance and wanted to
STEVE SPURGEON Director of communications for Chevron Energy Solutions
improve energy efficiency in the dorms.
"We definitely want to incorporate green measures into our work," Robertson said.
So far the Department of Student Housing has made strides in making the
residence halls greener. Robertson said Lewis, Templin, Ellsworth and Hashinger halls, all located on Daisy Hill, installed insulated walls and double pane windows during renovation.
She said when these buildings
were constructed gas was not a concern, but now the insulation and thicker windows reduced the consumption of natural gas.
She said in the last few years, student housing maintenance began installing fluorescent light bulbs in every residence hall, but the process was not a quick fix. She said they could only put in fluorescent light bulbs once the old light bulbs burn out.
"We can't do it as fast as we wish sometimes," Robertson said.
The Department of Student Housing also provides educational meetings on a floor-by-floor basis to remind students of ways to conserve energy. Robertson said the meetings tried to remind residents of simple things such as powering down computers at night and turning off the faucet while brushing their teeth.
"Maybe instead of a 20 minute shower you can try and do it in five or 10 minutes," Robertson said.
She said the Department of Student Housing would continue to explore different methods of conserving energy in every one of its residence halls.
Edited by Mandy Earles