These students are working with Morgan Johnston for LAS Honors College credit in the James Scholar program for Fall 2014.

• Ethel Liao – BIF crosswalk
• Sicong Fang – BIF crosswalk
• Jack Carrera – Bike Census
• Cara Ruan – Communication about Climate Change
• Vicki Prince – tree campus
• Ricki Runions – tree campus

Saving energy pays off for Christopher Hall

Clayton Glazik 3/5/2014

Since we were little our parents have told us to turn off the lights after we leave a room. That is just what the Christopher Hall residents at the University of Illinois did in 2013. By shutting the lights off in rooms not in use, switching their lights to compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, as well as other sustainable practices, the building was able to cut back its energy usage by 30.6% from the previous year.

The campus Facilities & Services (F&S) hosted a reception at Christopher Hall on February 14 to celebrate the building’s accomplishment in the F&S Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP). A campus-wide sustainability effort, ECIP provides building upgrades to facilities that produce top energy conservation results in energy advancement and occupant action categories. ECIP calculates how much money the buildings are saving in energy reduction and gives it back to the building to pay for upgrades.

Christopher Hall, which houses the Family Resiliency Center (FRC), the Autism Program (TAP), several classrooms, faculty and staff offices, and a family research home, saved nearly $22,000. According to FRC Director Barbara Fiese, a building committee recommended investing the funds in a bike rack since so many people cycle to work, as well as other items that can further reduce energy usage.

In 2010, the University of Illinois published a climate action plan that set aggressive timeliness for reducing energy consumption on campus. Currently, there are more than 300 such active projects, which can be tracked at http://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/projects.

“At the end of the day, if we really want to meet ICAP goals, we have to do more,” says Al Stratman, F&S executive director. “That is why we came up with ECIP, which mirrors the campus goals.”

At the award ceremony, faculty and students pledged to continue reducing energy in their lifestyles by taking public transportation, using natural light in their offices rather than electricity, and shopping more at local food markets instead of commercial grocery stores. With their current sustainable practices and these recent pledges, Christopher Hall will continue slashing their energy consumption, making the Illinois campus a greener place.

(from Family Resiliency Center news http://illinois.edu/lb/article/3493/82438)

Libraries Win Energy Awards

Jan 23, 2014

The Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP) at Illinois awards building upgrades on campus in facilities which have produced top energy conservation results. Each year eight campus buildings receive ECIP awards in two separate categories. Those selected have demonstrated the greatest percentage of energy conservation over a one-year period.

In 2013, three of eight awards went to Urbana campus libraries. The Undergraduate Library won 1st Place in the Occupant Action category; in the Energy Advancement category, the Main Library took 3rd Place while the Grainger Engineering Library took 4th Place. These libraries will work with the Utilities & Energy Services Division within Facilities & Services at the University to implement upgrades to their appearance or functionality.

The Energy Advancement category is for campus buildings whose energy reduction is the result of central funding from a significant energy conservation project. The Occupant Action category is for those buildings which have not benefited from such projects in the last fiscal year.

To learn more about the ECIP, please visit go.illinois.edu/ecip.

(from Library News at http://www.library.illinois.edu/news/ECIP2013.html)

We take total energy usage by building (electricity, Steam, Nat Gas and Chilled Water) convert all of those to one common unit, MMBTU (million British Thermal Units) and after adjusting for the weather differences between years, compare each building's annual usage with the year before.  We then convert the change into a percentage and then rank all eligible buildings by percentage saved.  The top four in each category win first through fourth.     Having won in FY13 does not disqualify you from winning in the future.  The goal is to encourage individual contributions to saving energy.   Mike Marquissee

As part of the ICECF 2009 Lighting Retrofit, 858 T-12 fixtures in the David Kinley Hall were replaced with the more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 84,223 hours. The simple payback for this project is -5.36 years. There are 54 fixtures that remain to be done in David Kinley Hall.

As part of the ICECF 2009 Lighting Retrofit, 1,728 T-12 fixtures in Lincoln Hall were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 99,886 hours. The simple payback for this project is -8.03 years.

As part of the ICECF 2009 Lighting Retrofit, 1,990 T-12 fixtures in the Vet Med Large Animal Clinic were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 320,117 hours. The simple payback for this project is 0.23 years.

As part of the ICECF 2009 Lighting Retrofit, 212 T-12 fixtures in the Vet Med Obstetrics Laboratory were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 78,687 hours. The simple payback for this project is -0.73 years.

As part of the ICECF 2009 Lighting Retrofit, 177 T-12 fixtures in the Abbott Power Plant were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 27,909 hours. The simple payback for this project is 0.74 years.