The Energy iCAP Team met for the first time on Oct. 2nd to discuss new ideas for addressing building-level energy usage during the pandemic and brainstormed priorities for achieving iCAP 2020 goals. Attached are the meeting minutes.

The agenda is as follows: 

1. Introductions
2. Discuss Energy objectives
3. Start developing goals for the team this year

With the finalized format of the energy report card and the compiled major events documented in Facilities and Services’ records, Ms. Morgan Johnston, Ms. Barnes, and I scheduled meetings with facilities staff who have the most knowledge about how each building works. This week, we talked to Ms. Mylinda Granger, Ms. Pat Malik from Disabilities Resources and Educational Services; Mr. Greg Anderson from Temple Hoyne Buell Hall; and Ms. Carol Young, Ms. Kari Cooperider, and Mr. Steve Hess from the Business Instructional Facility. They shared important information and wanted to help share the report with building occupants.

Next step is to revise the draft report cards based on these meetings. In the next few weeks, more meetings will be scheduled.

A meeting was held with Mr. Damon McFall, director of Facilities and Operations, for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was involved in all operations during retrocommissioning (RCx) in Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory (NCEL) in 2008. As I was going through the records, some questions regarding specific systems in the building and improvements during RCx 2008 came up. Mr. Damon McFall shared useful information at the meeting. Below are the major events that play important roles in energy consumption in the building.

• Repaired faulty/non-functioning controls for 28 air handling units

• Reduced number of exhaust fans and/or air quantities

• Occupancy schedules were used to reduce fan systems at night & close outdoor air dampers

• Replaced thermostats from aspirating to wall mount throughout building for better temperature control

• New programmable controls replaced worn out pneumatic controls

• Enhanced humidity control thereby saving chilled water costs

• Centralize  all  the  departmental  servers  into  one  room

• Group and relocate faculty and staff based on their desired temperature

This week, Ms. Morgan Johnston, Ms. Anna Barnes, and I met with F&S contacts Mr. David Boehm (from building maintenance team), Mr. Robert Halverson (from engineering design team), and Mr. Karl Helmink (from retrocommissioning team). We presented the current template we had for the energy report card and discussed questions regarding energy systems in selected buildings.

After explaining how we constructed the report cards, Mr.Boehm, Mr. Halverson, and Mr. Helmink offered advice on modifications. They noticed some word choices that could result in misinterpretations. The templates were then updated by Ms. Barnes.

Meanwhile, after compiling all the energy usage from 2008 to 2016 for each of the 10 buildings, we developed a list of questions regarding how energy is utilized in each building. Even though Mr.Boehm, Mr. Halverson, and Mr. Helmink were not familiar with every system in all 10 buildings, they directed us to those with the knowledge.

The next step is to communicate with contacts from Mr.Boehm, Mr. Halverson, and Mr. Helmink and get answers for the list of questions we have for each of the 10 buildings.

My name is Chen Zhang, a rising senior studying Civil and Environmental Engineering. As a new member of the project, I am excited to join the team and make contributions! This past week, I obtained access to the Energy Billing System (EBS) and created my account at the iCAP Portal. I learned how to navigate both systems and find useful information for the project. Meanwhile, I read documentations and reports developed previously for this project.

On May 25th, Ms. Morgan Johnston (associate director of Facilities and Services (F&S)), Ms. Ana Barnes (from F&S), and I had a meeting. Ten buildings (listed at the end) on campus were picked for the energy analysis between now and December 2017. Their locations and affiliations to different colleges were taken into account during the decision process to engage more students and faculties in future presentations. Meanwhile, we discussed important information that we will include in the energy report cards to raise awareness of energy conservation.

The first building we will analyze is Lincoln Hall. The next step is to gather data for its energy consumptions, including electricity, chilled water, steam, and gas usage, from the EBS website. An excel spreadsheet and graphs will the be developed to show the trend of energy consumption from 2008 until now.

Ten buildings:

a. Lincoln Hall

b.  Admin and Records

c.  DRES – Rehabilitation Center

d.  SDRP

e.  National Soybean Research Center

f. NCEL

g. Illini Union

h. Temple Hoyne Buell Hall

i.   BIF

j.   Morrill Hall

The report is about behavior change messaging, which lets the occupants of each building see their consumption changes over time and it will motivate them to conserve energy. The goal of the report is to display “past-current-new” patterns of energy conservation change. The result will be a paper with recommendations how to motivate people to be more sustainable.

The data for FY08-FY2016 was used.  The scope of the project are 175 buildings at the UIUC campus. Then the pilot project was about the Lincoln Hall. After Lincoln Hall, the work was started with the Soybean National Laboratory and the Illini Union.

On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

1) Comments needed on Illini Lights Out (ILO) recommendation;

2) Illini Lights Out final planning for 10th of March;

3) Building level energy consumption report;

4) Participation in Earth Hour and Earth week activities on campus;

5) Updates on the Green Labs Coordinator;

6) Planning for a campus walk focused on space utilization.