February 7, 2002
UW efforts to conserve pay off
The UW has done a good job conserving both energy and water in the past year, but the best may be yet to come, according to Facilities Services officials.
The University saved nearly $2 million in 2001 as compared with the previous year, according to a model developed by Facilities Services. The model takes into account fluctuations in energy costs and variations in climate between the two years, among a number of factors.
The University’s energy conservation is a product of measures taken centrally, such as reducing thermostat settings, and individual behavior changes, such as turning off unused lights or equipment.
While energy prices in the wholesale market have returned to near normal after spiking abruptly last spring, this has little effect on the rates paid by the UW, notes John Chapman, director of campus engineering and operations. “We buy our fuel and electricity from utilities that are still paying off the debts they incurred from last year, so their rates are still high,” he says. “Natural gas rates have declined a bit, but electricity rates have remained high.”
Conservation efforts for the past 12 months resulted in an average daily savings of just over 8 percent in British thermal units (BTUs) per gross square foot of building area, one way that engineers measure energy usage.
But when conservation efforts really kicked into gear, about the middle of last year, savings increased substantially, according to Eric Hausman, director of finance administration for Facilities Services. For the last six months of the year, energy consumption per square foot declined by more than 11 percent, he said.
While a great deal of the gains in conservation have resulted from the change of individual habits in energy uses, the Conservation Project Development Team at Facilities Services continues to find ways to squeeze the waste out of the system. At least eight buildings had excess lighting deactivated in the last six months of 2001, according to team head Dave Fields, and the feasibility of other ways to save energy centrally are being explored.
One current project involves the 200 campus cold-drink vending machines. The machines continue to hum, cooling their product and keeping their lights burning, regardless of whether there are any potential users in the neighborhood. But a new device called a VendingMiser allows the machine to go to sleep if it’s not likely to be used. When the machine is in an unoccupied area — for example, in an office building at night — it will work only enough to keep its contents cool.
Initial tests show that energy savings could be up to 50 percent, Fields says, with no reduction in the machine’s usability. The project is a partnership with Seattle City Light, which supplies about 90 percent of campus electricity, and Housing and Food Services.
Saving water also remains a high priority, despite the end of last year’s drought. One pilot project involves the installation of 70 waterless urinals in Allen Library, Meany Hall, Plant Services, Health Sciences and Ballmer Hall. The new urinals employ an innovative technology that seals liquids — and odors — by using a special fluid. Water meters recently installed in Ballmer showed that the building uses 10,000 gallons of water a day on average. A waterless urinal may save up to 44,000 gallons of water in a year.
The greatest savings in water usage, however, will come with more extensive installation of proven technology, says Fields. The entire campus is gradually being retrofitted with faucet aerators, low-capacity flush toilets and low-flow urinals. Other projects, such as replacing the old cooling tower in the health sciences BB wing will pay for themselves in water consumption savings within a few years.
