Energy upgrades result in big savings in science buildings

If your house had a leaky roof, you’d patch the holes and pat yourself on the back for improving its energy efficiency. But what if your house was supposed to pump all its air out on a regular basis?

“Buildings with labs have unique problems when it comes to energy improvements,” says Faramarz Vakili, director of the We Conserve program. “We bring in over 9 million cubic feet of air in these buildings, and it all has to be conditioned and go out the other end. It can’t stay.”

That does not mean the labs couldn’t be improved.

Armed with about $46 million in state funding for energy efficiency improvements, Vakili and physical plant engineers have helped the scientists, laboratory directors and students in eight science buildings lay bare their energy, safety and research needs. They also upgraded lighting and general heating and cooling systems.

The soon-to-be-finished renovations at the Chemistry Building will reduce the building’s energy needs by 29 percent, according to Vakili, and that represents the low end of the savings. At the other end of the spectrum, Chamberlin Hall’s fixes will cut energy use by two-thirds while bumping a long list of deferred maintenance from the university’s to-do list.

“Chamberlin’s three air-handling units were so old, we couldn’t turn them off at night,” Vakili said. “We weren’t sure they would come on again when we flipped the switch in the morning.”

The new units (which can be trusted to turn on with the flip of a switch) will join a growing army of intelligent equipment in lab buildings now capable of adjusting their heating, cooling and even fume venting according to their users’ schedules.

As physical plant engineers picked through buildings to plan renovations — analyzing heat and electricity load, occupancy rhythms and space requirements — academic departments and centers took the opportunity to kick in some of their own funding to upgrade equipment and rework floor plans.

While pondering the analysis of their building, Vakili said, Engineering Department staff found they did not need 40 of the fume hoods in their building. The savings help buy new hoods for each lab still in need.

“There was a lot of participation and guidance from the buildings on things that engineers wouldn’t necessarily have noticed,” Vakili said. “So no stone goes unturned, and not only will the buildings be efficient, not only will their fume hoods be new, but they’re going from labs that are functionally updated from a layout and equipment perspective.”

In all, 4 million square feet of building space has been revamped (or will be this year) — including Engineering Hall and Centers, Genetics-Biotechnology, Rennebohm Hall, Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences, and the Biochemistry Addition. The upgrades will save about $7.25 million per year, paying off the construction loans nearly three times as fast as the state borrowing program requires.