The Energy iCAP team met on 3/30/2022 to discuss efforts to increase energy efficiency on campus. The primary topic of conversation was a recommendation that some educational program be created for students to learn about the building design process and advocate for energy efficiency in buildings.
The iCAP Energy team had its first meeting of the 2021-22 Academic Year at 9:00 A.M. on September 24th. This meeting was used to evaluate where our team stands in achieving its goals and to determine a path forward for the year. The agenda, presentation, and minutes from the meeting are attached for a better understanding of the meeting.
In its March 2021 edition, the F&S Insider offers a sneak peek into the daily life and motivation of Rob Roman, the Director of Utilities & Energy Services at U of I!
To read this Q&A formatted story, please see the attached file below.
The Energy iCAP Team had a meeting on Feb. 10th where student member, Brinn McDowell, shared a presentation on calculated energy savings from green lab protocols that could greatly contribute towards energy conservation efforts. Updates were give on the Building Envelope Pilot Project, which is anticipated to start in March with several Energy iCAP Team students participating. Among other topics of discussion were ways to enforce compliance with state energy standards, to cooperate with student leaders across the Engineering, Architecture, and Design disciplines, and to condition vacated spaces in a time of distance-learning and -working. The agenda, meeting minutes, and chat log are attached below!
In Fall 2017, University of Illinois Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) Erica Myers and ACE Ph.D. Candidate Mateus Souza conducted a study to gauge whether detailed energy reports would influence student energy-saving behaviors. The project received funding through the Levenick iSEE Fellows Program, and ultimately determined that although similar experiments had proven effective in standard residential settings, the impact was negligible in residence halls where students do not directly pay for energy. On the other hand, simple nudges sent prior to winter break were effective in promoting the reduction of thermostat setpoints and energy consumption. Results from the study were later published at the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
The Energy SWATeam's meeting in September involved discussions on 2018-2019 recommendations and 2020 iCAP objective ideas.
The Bevier Café is a learning laboratory where FSHN students to get hands on experience running a food service establishment. This project will reduce the carbon footprint of the Bevier Cafe by installing a new, energy efficient, ventless dishwashing machine. The café will showcase the improvements to students and the general public. Students will get experience planning and purchasing equipment that matches the university’s sustainability efforts. Additionally, students will be exposed to the process and improvements through facility lectures and educational tours.
This student-led project upgrades one floor or 19 variable air volume (VAV) boxes to Direct Digital Controls and room level occupancy sensors in Engineering Hall. These measures will allow for scheduling and programming the air flow to the areas served, which will reduce the energy consumption for heating, cooling, and electricity. Currently the space is utilizing pneumatically controlled devices, which are not able to be adjusted on a schedule, so they run constantly at one specific set point. This results in a lack of ability to adjust to changing environmental conditions and results in less than optimal operating conditions. Making these scheduled systems for different settings will lower the unnecessary energy consumption in a building that gets a lot of use.
This project provides an energy consumption reduction solution for The English Building. The team will install occupancy sensing light control modules that can automatically shut off a room's lights when not in use. 11 rooms (classrooms and restrooms) have been selected for the improvements.
We have begun data collection to compare baseline energy consumption to energy consumption after installation of the pilot project - energy efficient HVAC control retrofit. Sensors needed were determined and installed. Data collection has begun with 4 weeks of data so far. Initial review of the data has identified several challenges with the HVAC already including heating valves that are leaking by providing heat where not required, which explains why the Air Handler is getting rid of heat even in the winter. The variable air volume system is also not varying as it should. This is demonstrating some pitfalls of pneumatically controlled HVAC systems.
Please see the attached Excel file for some Energy Use Intensity (MMBTU/GSF) and (kBTU/GSF) calculations for the Fruit Farm Admin Building. I have also attached an Energy Star Portfolio Manager Technical Reference which gives numbers for average U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type. These numbers are given in kBTU/GSF for comparison.
The good news is that the numbers have been decreasing from 2011 through 2017. Since 2018 is not over yet it would not be fair to count that number, but from 2011 through 2017 the energy use intensity appears to have decreased to about half of its starting value! The numbers range from about 299 MMBTU/GSF to about 153 MMBTU/GSF (about 45 kBTU/GSF to about 23 kBTU/GSF).
If you look in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager document, the UIUC Fruit Farm is on par with a small retail office (at the higher EUI levels from 2011) to a warehouse or other unoccupied space (at the lower EUI levels from more recent data). This may be an indication of the level of activity of the facility, or it may just reflect the fact that you are getting a lot of geothermal energy (three to four units of geothermal energy for every one unit of electricity). If you look in the table you will see that a laboratory is listed as 78.8 kBTU/GSF, which is about 3.5 times the 2017 calculated value of 23 kBTU/GSF for the Fruit Farm.
Please note that the numbers I am comparing the Fruit Farm to are the site energy numbers in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager document, which reflect the amount of energy you are using at the site (meter readings). Source energy numbers are higher and include losses due to energy conversion and distribution from where the energy was originally generated (likely a coal or natural gas plant in Illinois).
- Frank Holcomb
The Student Sustainability Committee allocated $38,000 to make energy upgrades at Temple Hoyne Buell Hall.
This proposal directly funds:
Attached is the Chancellor's reply to the ECONS003 Conservation Budget recommendation.
See Transmittal of ECONS003 Conservation Budget to the Provost Office
Interim Provost Wilkin, on behalf of Chancellor Jones, approved moving forward with the recommendations discussed at the March 2017 Sustainability Council meeting. See attached file.
See iWG follow-up on the March 2017 Sustainability Council meeting here.
See Transmittal of EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standards here.
See iWG Assessment for SWATeam recommendation EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standard here.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standards here.
See Transmittal of EGen003 PPA term to the Sustainability Council here.
See iWG Assessment of EGen003 PPA Term here.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen003 PPA Term here.
See Transmittal of ECONS003 Conservation Budget to the Provost Office here.
See iWG Assessment of ECONS003 Conservation Budget here.
See SWATeam Recommendation of ECONS003 Conservation Budget here.
Director of iSEE, Evan DeLucia, summarized three recommendations presented at the March 2017 Sustainability Council meeting: EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standard, EGen003 Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Timeline, and ECons003 Conservation Budget, as well as the next steps, for Chancellor Jones’ approval.
We followed up with the Sustainability Council on April 25, 2017, with the attached file.
See Transmittal of EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standards here.
See iWG Assessment for SWATeam recommendation EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standard here.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen005 Rooftop Solar Standards here.
See Transmittal of EGen003 PPA term to the Sustainability Council here.
See iWG Assessment of EGen003 PPA Term here.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen003 PPA Term here.
See Transmittal of ECONS003 Conservation Budget to the Provost Office
See iWG Assessment of ECONS003 Conservation Budget
ee SWATeam Recommendation of ECONS003 Conservation Budget
ECONS003 Conservation Budget Recommendation was transmitted to the Office of the Provost on March 6, 2017. The Council discussed the recommendation at this meeting.
On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:
1) Discuss and comment on attached recommendation for institutionalizing Illini Lights Out;
2) Illini Lights Out final planning for 24th of February;
3) Participation in Earth Hour activities on campus;
4) Discussion on what else to accomplish this year.
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on May 31, 2016, to discuss and start the assessment of the SWATeam recommendation ECONS003 Conservation Budget. They supported the Continued Funding for Energy Conservation (ECONS003 Conservation Budget) recommendation. The iWG's official comments for this recommendation was:
"Strategic investment in energy conservation, including recommissioning and preventive maintenance, offers the campus a unique opportunity to achieve long-term savings in utility costs while also advancing the objectives of the Illinois Climate Action Plan. In contrast, failure to invest in conservation, while it may appear to offer short-term financial savings, will only lead to higher future utility costs; this is analogous to “eating the seed corn.” Campus efforts have already led to $8M/year savings.
This SWATeam recommendation describes a number of key issues and needs that we recommend be addressed. Due to the major impact of this recommendation, theiCAP Working Group plans to transmit this to the Sustainability Council. However, due to the timely nature of budget discussions, we recommend that iSEE meet with the Provost to share this recommendation."
See attached the iWG assessment complete with official comments from all the iWG members.
See SWATeam recommendation of ECON003 Conservation Budget
The Conservation Budget Recommendation (ECONS001) was supplanted by an updated Conservation Budget Recommendation (ECONS003).
See iWG assessment of ECONS001 Conservation Budget
The ECBS SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG stating, "We recommend continuing to fund critical projects that are key to energy conservation efforts at UIUC. Given the budgetary constraints of the University of Illinois, the team has developed a prioritized list to guide decision makers about funding priorities. Please see noted references for additional rationale for our recommendations.
Priority 1 (Top—Most important): RESTORE funding for energy conservation work to FY 15 levels (total of ~$2M) to allow the recommission teams to continue their work. Specifically:
• Restore $610K in Systems & Controls / Energy Conservation FY 16 cuts (includes $250K Quick Payback.)
• Provide funding to maintain the $1.15M needed for the 3 existing Recommissioning teams.
• Protect this initiative from FY 17 budget cuts (including another $ 250K proposed cut in Quick Payback.)
Priority 2: INCREASE the Recommissioning and Preventive Maintenance (PM) teams. IMPLEMENT systematic upgrades of building control systems.
• Increase Recommissioning teams from 3 to 4 for FY2017 (increase of $ 350K for FY 17).
• Provide funding for systematic building control upgrades at $1M/year to allow further conservation.
Priority 3: MAINTAIN the State Utilities Budget (currently ~$65M/year). This will allow campus to reinvest energy savings in more conservation work while maintaining the ability to cover possible future fuel and power price increases. Future Energy Performance Contracts with ESCOs could be supported by this reinvestment, as well as providing funding support for debt service payments on borrows. We anticipate that another ~$100M will need to be spent on future ESCO/deferred maintenance projects.
Priority 4: COORDINATE with the Campus Master Plan to retire campus space and reduce overall campus square footage. New capital projects must be optimized for energy conservation. Coordinate campus deferred maintenance estimated at (~$750M) with deferred maintenance projects, campus energy conservation efforts, and campus master plan efforts."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation ECONS003 Conservation Budget complete with comments from all the ECBS SWATeam members.
See Supplanted ECONS001 Conservation Budget
