In October 2010, the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) wrote a letter to the Office of Sustainability at the U of I recommending that the wind turbine project receive $500,000 in funding with following conditions:

1) That all funds provided by the SSC be returned in full if the project is postponed, cancelled or placed on hold.

2) That all funds provided by the SSC for be expended by December 31 st, 2011 and that a final report of all work completed and accounting of funds spent be provided to us by that date as well.

As I have thought about this effort, I concluded that weatherization inspections would be most productive in our converted residential units on campus - frame structures and 1-3 story masonry buildings which were originally constructed primarily as residential units.  While I don't have a ready inventory of those structures, following is an extremely incomplete list meant to typify the kinds of buildings I am thinking about:

• The two converted houses east of Uni High on Springfield, used by Uni High.
• The converted house on the northwest corner of Green and Goodwin.
• The converted house southeast of ISR on the north side of Illinois.
• 608 S. Matthews, 708 S. Matthews, converted houses along Nevada between Matthews and Goodwin.
• Converted units along Oregon between Matthews and Goodwin.
• Converted units on the south side of Nevada west of Lincoln Avenue, etc

These buildings fly far below the radar of our formal retro-commissioning efforts, since we have so many improvement opportunities in much larger buildings that consume significantly more resources.

For the Student Sustainability Committee to provide funding for a students who would spearhead and manage the program, in addition to financial incentives to the surveyors, is a brilliant idea that makes this effort that much more workable during a very busy time at Facilities & Services.  That approach will also provide real world, resume quality experience for the people who step up to the challenge.

A part of program development that such student employees should undertake would be to identify the kinds of information that would be applicable toward weatherization of the types of structures identified above.  F&S staff would discuss with the students their conclusions and would provide grounding in what weatherization remediation activities we could/would actually pursue.  That approach is preferable to F&S telling you what information we want you to gather.

I just grabbed off the web the single quick reference below as one example of what resources are readily available to the student program managers as they work to identify what information the surveyors would be asked to gather.

Does this give you what you need to flesh out your idea?

Carl Wegel

Director of Maintenance, and all-around nice guy

Weatherization Tips For Your Home.
...Recommended by US DOE (1)

-- Test your home for air tightness. A professional blower door test is the best option, however you can find major leaks yourself. On a windy day, hold a lit incense stick next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weather-stripping.

-- Caulk and weather-strip doors and windows that leak air.

-- Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducts, or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior walls, floors, ceilings, and over cabinets.

-- Install rubber gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on exterior walls.

-- Look for dirty spots in your attic insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes by foaming the gap, or by stapling sheets of plastic over the holes and caulking the edges of the plastic.

-- Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with double-pane windows. Storm windows may as much as double the R-value of single-pane windows and they can help reduce drafts, water condensation, and frost formation. As a less costly and less permanent alternative, you can use a heavy-duty, clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside of your window frames during the cold winter months. Remember that the plastic must be sealed tightly to the frame to help reduce infiltration.

-- When the fireplace is not in use, keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air escapes 24 hours a day!

From: Jennifer Koys [mailto:jennifer.koys@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 10:14 PM
To: Wegel, Carl V (Facilities & Services); Henson, K Dean (Facilities & Services); Johnston, Morgan (Facilities & Services)
Cc: Anna Franco
Subject: Campus Weatherization Project

Hello,

Hope you're all having a good week! I was wondering if you would be able to provide a "wish list" of the data that would potentially be useful to obtain from student assessments, how you would like it organized, and what you would want to do with the data obtained? This would be very helpful to have as I move forward.

You mentioned at the meeting having students help run the program. Thinking about this, one possibility I came up with was hiring a student worker to work under someone at F&S to run the program. In the years after the initial start-up, this student could be chosen from the students involved in the assessments during the previous year, as they would possess background knowledge and experience necessary to effectively coordinate the program. Do you have any thoughts on this idea?

Thanks!

Jenny
 

I'm from the Student Sustainability Committee. This year, we are interested in funding a project that will utilize students to help to achieve the University goal of weatherizing campus buildings.  Suhail Barot pointed me to you as good people to talk with to start a conversation about what F & S would be looking for in regards to such a program and getting ideas going to submit in response to the Committee's RFP.I'm from the Student Sustainability Committee. This year, we are interested in funding a project that will utilize students to help to achieve the University goal of weatherizing campus buildings.  Suhail Barot pointed me to you as good people to talk with to start a conversation about what F & S would be looking for in regards to such a program and getting ideas going to submit in response to the Committee's RFP.

Jennifer Koys
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Business Process Management, 2011
Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), Director
Student Sustainability Committee, Treasurer
 

Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) includes composting on list for proposed funding.  Kevin Wolz assigned as SSC Intern “working at feasibility of composting.”

Cty of Urbana declares that the wind turbine location does not follow the Urbana Wind Ordinance by situating the turbines too close residential neighborhoods.

In August 2010, Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) committed $500,000 to fund the wind turbine project.

The 2010 iCAP executive summary included this commitment:

"The University will establish a dedicated, centrally coordinated funding pool for energy conservation projects within the next three years. This “clean energy” fund will allow for both internal (student fees, faculty contributions, staff contributions, energy savings reinvestment, capital programs), and external (programs, rebates, donations, outside investors) participation. It will be established as a capital infusion and coordination mechanism aimed at physical energy and energy cost reductions that also allows for the sustained maintenance of these investments."