Energy and Atmosphere - King Library LEED Certification part 2

The next segment on the Facilities website for the King Library's LEED Certification process discusses water resource savings.

Since there was already a green tip written about water in the King Library a few weeks ago, this week's green tip is highlighting the Energy segment.

Did you know we have a power plant on campus?

2/3's of the campus electricity is produced by a natural gas-fired turbine at SJSU's Central Plant on 10th Street.

A by-product of running the turbine is heat, which is captured and distributed as steam to heat campus buildings, including the King Library.

SJSU's Central Plant also produces chilled water using 20,000 gallons of recycled water per year to run the air conditioning system on campus.

(SJSU does purchase some electricity from PG&E.)

In 1999/2000, the King Library building was designed to use 32% less energy than the minimum energy standard listed under the California Building Standards Code (CA Title 24). The building earned a "Savings By Design" award of $250,000.00 from PG&E in 2004.

However, the building design is not enough. Ongoing testing (via a Monitoring Based Commissioning Project, or MBCx) must be conducted to make sure the energy savings remain within the desired ranges.

Here are some of the adjustments that came out of the MBCx testing:

*The lighting near the windows of the King Library were designed to be off during daylight hours. During testing, these lights were found to be on during the day. The time clocks were adjusted so that the lights would remain off during daylight hours.

*The three most common light fixtures in King Library were examined during testing. These fixtures were retrofitted and lower wattage/brighter light bulbs were installed.

*Occupancy sensors were installed in the stacks so that the center stack lights will turn off during times of non-activity. The lights on the ends of the stacks remain on for safety.

Are we using any renewable energy?

Right now, if we added solar panels to the King Library roof, they would produce less than 3% of the energy we're using.

In time, the photovoltaic technology for solar panels will improve to become more efficient and might be an option later.

The King Library received an award for the 'Best Practices in Energy Efficiency Award in Lighting Retrofit category among 23 California State University campuses' last month.

Here are some statistics from the library's facilities specialist that highlight the retrofit project:

* Lighting Retrofit itself reduced energy consumption by 22%

* Additional repair of some mechanical issues during the course of the Lighting Retrofit project further reduced our energy consumption by 6.7%

* Total consumption reduction = 1,937,174 kWh/year

* Incentive received from PG&E for the Lighting project = $378,195

* Annual energy savings as the result of the Lighting project = $309,948

* Annual savings on repair & maintenance = $120,000

* Total cost of our Lighting project = $1,480,000

* Project payback period (including annual repair/maintenance savings) = 2.24 years


Green tip of the week: Consider changing out your incandescent light bulbs for the energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.

Remember old incandescent bulbs can be disposed of in the trash, but any fluorescent bulbs need to be taken to a participating partner for recycling. Fluorescent bulbs contain mercury and are considered hazardous waste, so they cannot be disposed of in the trash.

Here is a link of participating partners and hardware stores that accept fluorescent bulbs for recycling:
http://www.sccgov.org/SCC/docs/SCC%20Public%20Portal/attachments/Retailers.pdf


Here are the links about energy savings in the King Library for LEED certification:
http://www.sjsu.edu/fdo/energy/sustainability/king_lib_leed/kingleed3ea/
http://www.sjsu.edu/fdo/energy/sustainability/lighting/KingLightMBCx/


Here are the links about water savings for LEED certification, if you're interested:
http://www.sjsu.edu/fdo/energy/sustainability/king_lib_leed/kingleed2wr/
http://greentipsandstories.blogspot.com/2010/05/way-forward-for-water.html


Some current news about previous green tips:

The CA State Assembly approved a measure to ban single use plastic bags in grocery, convenience, and other stores. The bill is now headed to be considered in the CA State Senate.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10811198
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/03/BAOE1DOUFF.DTL

Coulomb Technologies, a maker of charging stations for electric cars, received national grant money and plans to install 4600 charging stations nationwide by October 2011, including some in the bay area.
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_15205561?source=rss
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/06/02/cnet.electric.vehicle.charging/index.html?section=cnn_latest