2004 BEST Awards
The BEST (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Awards are issued annually to local companies with exemplary environmental achievements in waste prevention and recycling, water conservation, energy conservation, stormwater pollution prevention, sustainable building, innovation and environmental leadership.
Facilities Services has been selected as the winner of the 2004 Seattle BEST Award for Water Conservation. We will also receive Honorable Mentions for Energy Conservation and Environmental Leadership. The third annual BEST Awards Ceremony will occur on May 13th. Jerri McCray, Associate Vice President for Facilities Services, will be accepting the award. Please note that public disclosure of the BEST Awards winners will not be publicly disclosed until the day of the ceremony. Until then, please keep this information internal.
Water Conservation Projects
Water-free Urinals
Four Duravit water-free urinals have been installed in the IMA men’s locker room. An additional 82 of them will be installed in Health Sciences beginning in May.
Lander Hall is now a test site for various brands of non-water-using urinals. Both Falcon and Duravit models are currently installed there. Prior to the end of April, three Danish-designed water-free urinals by Uridan will be installed at the test site. Infrared occupancy sensors and counting devices are also installed that will provide useful product performance data.
UW representatives from Custodial Services, Residential Services and Plant Services met with representatives from Falcon Technologies, manufacturers of the Falcon water-free urinal. Product performance and maintenance problems, such as leaking cartridge bodies, inadequate cartridge life expectancy and intermittent odor problems were discussed. Falcon has contracted with University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors, at no cost to the University, to retrofit all 100 of the Falcon fixtures currently installed on campus with newly designed interiors. According to the Falcon representatives, the retrofit should resolve the leaking and odor issues. As further recognition of Falcon’s commitment to the UW, they will provide free replacement cartridges to compensate for our previous excessive replacement expenses.
Toilet Replacement Program
The toilet replacement program continues on track with over 900 older toilets replaced with water-saving 1.6 gallon-per-flush (gpf) toilets as of the end of March. The program target is to replace about 1500 toilets with 1.6 gpf units. When completed, the University should realize a water savings of about 40,000,000 gallons of water annually and $370,000 per year in avoided combined water and sewer costs.
Cooling Tower Study
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is interested in conducting an evaluation of several cooling towers on campus. They will take periodic samples to study water chemistry and corrosion problems and review operational efficiency. Particular areas of interest are cooling towers at the Power Plant, UWMC, Allen Center, Kincaid, HUB, BB High Rise, RR Tower and Gates Law School. This is an opportunity for the University to utilize SPU consulting services to help identify potential maintenance problems.
Bloedel Water Distiller
A project to replace the water distiller located in the upper mechanical room of Bloedel Hall was sent to SPU for their review and approval. The existing antiquated distiller consumes about five gallons of water per minute. Replacing it is estimated to cost about $30,000. However, by doing so, the University will save $25,000 annually in avoided combined water and sewer costs.
Electricity Conservation
Law School Energy Analysis
Seattle City Light (SCL) and the UW executed an agreement to have a rebate analysis conducted for the William S. Gates Law School. CDi Engineers has completed that analysis. The analysis was to determine the energy savings between installing a waterside economizer serving only a computer server room addition versus installing an economizer that would serve all building cooling loads. The report, based on an ambient server room temperature of 75 degrees, indicates a15 year payback not including design and project management fees. A funding source has not been identified.
The current Seattle Energy Code requires that when building spaces are altered or reassigned necessitating upsizing of the building’s cooling equipment, an economizer must be installed to reduce the requirement for mechanical refrigeration.
Solar Array Projects
The UW and SCL have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for two solar array projects to be installed on Merrill Hall and the Mechanical Engineering Building (MEB). An array capable of producing 3,600 watts will be installed on the roof of Merrill Hall.
The MEB project will consist of two separate arrays. One will be located on the roof and produce up to 1,800 watts. The second is a window awning design that will be located above windows on the south façade. It will produce up to 1,200 watts. UW students from the School of Engineering, School of Architecture and Physics Department have played a significant role in developing the MEB project. They worked on the design and secured $20,000 from the Student Technology Fee Committee to purchase computer equipment and establish a website to meet the project’s public educational outreach requirement.
All of the solar array projects will be installed during Spring Quarter 2004.
Lighting Retrofits
SCL has given their approval to move forward with lighting retrofit projects at Fluke Hall and Allen Library. Materials will be ordered to begin the projects Spring Quarter. The Fluke Hall retrofit will be installed first. Fluke is estimated to cost $40,000 before an anticipated incentive rebate of $10, 860 and is expected to save 108,580 kWh annually. Allen Library’s work is estimated to cost $190,000 before an anticipated rebate of $64,370 and should save around 478,000 kWh per year. Combined annual savings, through avoided electricity costs for these projects, are estimated to exceed $29,000.
The Conservation Project Development Team is considering lighting retrofit projects in the Women’s Addition and Gymnastics areas of Hec Ed Pavilion. Currently, these two areas are illuminated with metal halide fixtures. As with the Nordstrom Indoor Tennis Facility, these areas could reduce energy and enhance illumination by retrofitting to T-5 fluorescents.
LEC Exit Light Upgrades
The Nordstrom Indoor Tennis Facility was retrofitted with LEC exit lights that use a type of electroluminescent known as Light Emitting Capacitors (LEC). First used in military aircraft, LEC consists of a thin layer of zinc sulfide phosphorus-impregnated material sandwiched between two layers of conducting material, one of which is transparent. The phosphorus layer produces light when voltage is applied across the two conductive layers. LEC light panels use only 1/4 watt of electricity compared to incandescent, fluorescent or LED which ranges between 2.8 to 40 watts in a typical exit sign. Other advantages of LEC panels are perfect uniform illumination and maintenance-free operation. Hec Edmundson Pavilion will be the next facility to be retrofitted with LEC exit lights.
Delta P Valves
The ongoing Delta P valve pilot project continues to study the potential for future application of Delta P valves within the campus chilled water system. Delta P (differential pressure) valves provide an automatic method of regulating chilled water flow to cooling coils. Data collected during the 2003 cooling season is inconclusive due to delays installing the necessary monitoring devices to accumulate comparative data. There appears to be a wide variation in potential savings that necessitates continued monitoring during the 2004 cooling season.