Electricity Conservation Projects
H&FS VendMiser Installations
The UW Housing and Food Services VendMiser occupancy sensor program entered into with Seattle City Light and Pepsi has been put on hold while H&FS is in the process of signing a new vending agreement with Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has now joined the VendMiser program to help us save energy. VendMisers may save as much as 50% of the power used to run a vending machine. To date, about 30 units have been installed.
Occupancy Sensor Project Design
Scope: Art, Loew Hall, Kincaid Hall and Thompson Hall were identified as candidates for pilot installations of occupancy sensors. These buildings were chosen to provide a diversity of occupancy and building use. It is anticipated that UW Shops personnel will conduct the occupancy sensor installations during this Winter Quarter.
Status: Design requests have been submitted to four occupancy sensor manufacturers.
West Campus Garage Lighting Control
Status: Funding has been approved by Parking Division. Awaiting equipment arrival for installation by UW Shops.
Central Plaza Garage Lighting Control
Status: Awaiting return of equipment bid submittals.
Schmitz Hall HVAC
Scope: This project consists of installing variable speed drives for both supply and return fans with time scheduled operation of the fans to tailor ventilation rates to occupied hours, provide minimum fan operation (approximately 30%) during unoccupied hours and the ability to adjust ventilation rates to seasonal requirements.
Project Calculations: When this project was originally considered in 1997, it was estimated to cost $83,000. At that time, the SCL rebate amount was $0.135 per kWh saved. This calculated out to a total SCL incentive of $58,000 and annual savings of about $20,000 per year. The project is estimated to save 495,500 kWh per year. At the present SCL phase II rate of $0.233/kWh saved, the incentive amount equates to a potential rebate of $115,445 and a significant annual savings considering SCL present charge rate.
It will be necessary to consult with Johnson Controls to have them estimate the present cost of adding Metasys software to provide the described air monitoring and fan speed control. It is reasonable to assume a 7% - 10% increase for project installation.
Status: This project will be re-submitted for funding approval.
Lighting Reduction
Buildings
Lighting reduction occurred in the following buildings between June and August:
- Anderson Hall
- Bloedel Hall
- Communications
- Gould Hall
- More Hall
- Schmitz Hall
- Social Work / Speech and Hearing
This brings the total number of campus buildings where lighting reduction has been done to 38.
Lighting Reduction Program Total Annual kWh Saved to Date
The total annual kWh saved by lighting reduction to date is:
- 271,000 — Northeast Zone
- 280,600 — Health Sciences Zone (All identified reduction done)
- 161,086 — Central Zone
- 145,403 — Southwest Zone
858,089 watts /1000 = 858 kW (5000 hours) = 4,290,445 kWh
Avoided Costs resulting from lighting reduction to date: $214,500/year
Water Conservation Projects
Tubby Graves A/C Unit Retrofit
Location: Tubby Graves Room 239
Scope: This project will replace the “Koldwave” unit with a new 3 ton split coil that requires no domestic water for condenser cooling or other use.
Project Calculations: This ICA funded project has a cost estimate of $21,000. The City water being consumed by the existing equipment is 1,993 ccf/yr resulting in a cost of $12,150/yr. SPU incentives are projected to be 50% of the project total or $10,500 resulting in a simple payback of 0.89 years.
Status: Completed
McCarty Hall Refrigeration Replacement
Location: McCarty Kitchen
Scope: This project will replace two water-cooled compressors with two air-cooled units.
Project Calculations: This H&FS funded project has an estimated cost range between $45,000 to $50,000. The cost of City water consumed by the existing equipment is approximately $40,000 /yr. SPU incentives are projected to be 50% of the project total, or $20,000 to $25,000. This will result in a simple payback of 0.50 years.
Status: Project is in progress.
Johnson Hall Electronic Microscope Cooling
Location: Johnson Room 34
Scope: This project will remove the constant flow City water connection and replace its function with a refrigerated re-circulating air-cooled chiller.
Currently, 703 ccf/yr of City water is consumed annually at a cost of $4,132/yr.
Project Calculations: This project has an estimated installed cost of $3, 664. SPU incentives are projected to be 50% of project total, or $1,832. This will result in a simple payback of 0.44 years.
Status: Project defined. Design not required. SPU Approved. New equipment has arrived and will be installed by UW Shops.
BB High Rise Cooling Tower
Scope: This project will replace the antiquated cooling tower with a new larger unit. The design of the new cooling tower system is expanded to pick up cooling loads in BB High Rise and A wing currently served by independent single pass through A/C units. The design considers using waste water from the RO unit as make-up water for the cooling tower.
Project Calculations: It is estimated that the existing cooling tower and independent A/C units uses 62 gallons of City water per minute. The estimated savings per year is approximately $86,000. The estimated cost of the project is $450,000. The estimated SPU incentive is 50% of the project total or $225,000 providing a simple payback of 2.6 years.
Status: This project design is completed and awaits funding approval.
Gerberding Hall Cooling Tower
Scope: This project will replace the existing cooling tower with a new unit and combine additional cooling loads presently served by individual A/C units within the building. Facilities Engineering has requested several option plans.
Project Calculations: Unknown at this time
Status: The original Coffman study was rejected. Awaiting new study and design budget from Coffman Engineering. New study is to include figures for projected funding for each option. $225,000 has been appropriated.
Quaternary Research / Johnson Hall Cooling Tower
Scope: It has been determined that the cooling tower at the Quaternary Research Building is corroded and leaking to the extent that water cannot be contained and chemically treated. It has been recommended that a cooling tower replacement project should consider sizing the tower to include cooling loads at Johnson Hall.
Water Conservation Maintenance Work
Pavilion Pool
The Hec Edmundson Men’s Pool was leaking up to 100,000 gallons of water each month for a long period of time through a deteriorated bottom drainpipe. Maintenance staff inserted an inflatable plug into the drainpipe which stopped the leakage. This is only a temporary fix pending a decision to either replace the pool or fund the replacement of the drainpipe.
Hitchcock Hall Cooling Tower
Repairs were made to the Hitchcock Cooling Tower to put it back in service.
The cooling tower was using back up City water to provide cooling service to environmental chambers and temperature-controlled rooms within the building. City water was being used at the rate of approximately 115 gallons per minute.
A study is currently underway to determine future reliability of the cooling tower system.
President’s Residence Water Usage Assessment
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) conducted a Water Usage Assessment in June. A report of the assessment was received in August. According to the report, the best opportunity for reducing water use may be found in operating the irrigation system more efficiently and replacing toilets that use more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush. One toilet on the main floor of the residence was changed to a low capacity flush type during this summer’s maintenance work as a pilot. The type of toilet installed is louder when flushed than the one that was replaced and there have been complaints regarding this from the household staff. SPU’s recommendations regarding the irrigation scheduling have been implemented. Water usage at the residence has dropped dramatically in recent months.
Water Conservation Recommendations/Considerations
Faucet Aerator Installation
Installing faucet aerators is a very cost effective means for saving water with the shortest payback time (< 0.1 years). The Conservation Project Development Team (CPDT) has recommended that aerator installations become a practice included in the Plant Services preventative maintenance program. Steps will be taken to order these units and provide them to the zones for installation.
Balmer Hall Fixture Upgrade
Balmer Hall has been selected as the site to pilot the upgrade of plumbing fixtures to determine the cost effectiveness of such a program. Balmer’s water consumption will be measured before and after toilets, urinals and faucet aerators are replaced with water conserving units. Seattle Public Utilities provides a fixed incentive per unit for fixture upgrades.
Deduct Meters
The CPDT will move forward with SPU’s recommendation to install deduct meters on existing cooling tower installations. Significant savings can be realized by avoiding the $4.49 / ccf sewer rate charge. Because SPU does not provide meter-reading for deduct metering, it will be necessary to develop an internal program to provide the required data to SPU for billing credits.
Cooling Tower Maintenance Program
Roger VanGelder, Consulting Engineer for Seattle Public Utilities, has provided recommendations for improving our cooling tower maintenance program.
Additional Water Conservation Opportunities
Roger VanGelder has also provided a list of additional water conservation opportunities.
Waterless Urinals
Representatives from the Conservation Project Development Team took a field trip on September 12th to the Kent School District to review their waterless urinal installations. The representatives will also be reviewing an installation at Seattle University later this month.
Campus Campaign to Conserve Energy and Water
Karen Zaugg, Director for Organization Relations, has organized an Energy and Conservation Campaign Committee. Representatives from Maintenance and Alterations, Campus Engineering and Operations, Health Sciences Information Services, Government Relations and Housing and Food Services are included. The committee held a session on August 22nd. The purpose of the meeting was to brainstorm ideas and select promising approaches for an energy/water campaign to: a) achieve more conservation behavior, and b) convey to students, faculty, staff, legislators, and citizens that the UW is energetically striving to reduce consumption.
From all of the brainstorming ideas, the group identified key items to pursue. It was agreed that:
- The campaign should target everyone (students, faculty, staff).
- A public campaign is needed.
- A committee should be formed, including UW public relations professionals, to plan the campaign and to accomplish the key steps of developing a logo and slogan.
- Essential criteria of the campaign include impact and effectiveness of measures, cost of measures, and keeping measures simple.