Jim Perino of the Physical Plant Mechanical Shop heads a technologically-steered heating and cooling system under the nomenclature Energy Management System. Initially installed in 1987 by Andover Controls, the continually evolving system is so efficient that reduced energy consumption enabled the college to repay the approximately $500,000.00 federal energy conservation loan within a five-year period. Reduction in consumption and subsequent cost savings sustained, even with the addition of the Chemistry Hall, the Education Business Building, the Student Life Center, and The Center for Southwest Studies.
Although the system is exceptionally efficient there are, nonetheless, avoidable energy drainers that are in conflict with the operation. In particular, personal space heaters, not approved for use on the Fort Lewis College campus, impair the integrity of heating maintenance. Many electrical circuits into which the heaters are plugged are not sized for such loads and can cause circuits to overheat, resulting in tripped breakers, lighting loss, computer shutdowns, and loss of computer information. Several rooms may be monitored by one system and occupants who utilize space heaters inadvertently affect temperatures in associated rooms. When temperatures increase, this is sensed by the monitoring supply system and the supplied air temperature is automatically reduced. Reciprocally, temperatures in the other rooms are reduced well below the heating set point of 68 degrees.
In addition, the shop encourages employees to turn off lights when areas are not in use and to be aware of keeping doors and windows closed to maintain the proper temperatures.
The Energy Management System controls a broad spectrum of campus equipment under the heading of heating and cooling from boilers, heating pumps chillers, cooling towers, to a ventilation system involving supply fans (coils), supply fans (furnace) return fans and fume fans to name a few. In addition to automatically controlling the on/off feature; the system utilizes outside air temperatures to reset hot water heaters and chilled water.
Under the ventilation category an air handler sends air down a duct to some 265 variable air volume boxes. Each box is responsible for maintaining a selection of rooms or spaces at a mandated 68 degrees in winter and 74 degrees in summer. Temperatures are mandated by the president of the college.
Campus energy savings is achieved by reducing the consumption of natural gas and electricity achieved through scheduled control of temperatures in buildings, rooms and associated equipment. When facilities are unoccupied, the highest proficiency for energy savings is achieved when equipment is commensurately turned off.
Energy savings is facilitated by resetting the air temperature supplied by the air handling systems to the various campus spaces to meet load conditions. To elaborate, as building temperatures increase or decrease the air is heated or cooled just enough to satisfy the lowest or highest temperatures in the building.
In a similar sense, resetting heated water and chilled water temperatures to meet load conditions also conserves energy. As outside air temperature increases, the heated water temperature is reduced. In the reverse fashion, when the outside air temperature decreases the chilled water temperature is reduced.
Variable air volume systems maintain the appropriate outside air intake required for individual spaces while supplying only the minimum amount of air to meet the heating and cooling requirements. The system can increase or decrease air volume proportionately to meet changing load conditions. As a result, only the amount of air that is required to maintain temperatures at set point is heated or cooled.
Heat reclaim coils are installed on air handling equipment in buildings that require large amounts of outside air for ventilation. In the Chemistry Hall for example, coils are installed in the exhaust system from the building and reclaim the heat exhausted to the outside. Coils are then re-circulated in a closed coil to a preheat coil in the supply fan. This reduces the amount of heating and cooling required by boilers and chillers.
When the Energy Management System was installed in 1987 there were 400 installed points increasing over the years to 6,139 points in 2003.
