Energy Chapter Draft
From Common Energy UVic
Contents |
[edit] MEASURE
[edit] Action
[edit] Energy Audit - Business and Economics (BEC) Building
Reducing energy demand on campus requires first an understanding of how energy is used. Only then can areas be identified for energy reduction, complete with a full cost-benefit analysis of implementing such measures. When addressing energy use in buildings then, a thorough energy audit is naturally the first step. Pending approval from the Business faculty, the Energy Working Group will begin in May an energy audit of the Business and Economics (BEC) building. To be completed by September, the audit will provide a full detail of existing energy infrastructure in the building and make initial recommendations for improving energy efficiency. The audit will include the following:
- Building energy usage statistics including electricity, natural gas heating, and hot water usage
- For electricity usage, an attempt will be made to quantify the usage associated with each application
- Historical and seasonal load requirements from the electric grid and gas pipelines
- Heating/Ventilation/Air Conditioning survey including equipment models, thermal efficiencies and schedules of operation
- Lighting schedules including peak and trough loads in daily, seasonal, and annual time intervals
- Thermal efficiencies of building envelopes, piping, roofs and windows
- Connection to any on-campus energy generation stations, such as the natural gas powered steam district heating system
- List of major mechanical equipment used in both academic research and plant operations
Based on a needs analysis, appropriate recommendations will be made. Should the Business Faculty be successful in implementing a revolving carbon offset fund for faculty air travel, funds collected can conveniently be directed towards the energy efficiency improvement measures suggested in the audit.
[edit] Proposal
[edit] Campus-Wide Energy Audit
If the results of the pilot BEC building audit are promising, in that a significant amount of energy reduction can be achieved, the Energy Working Group will propose a campus-wide energy audit. This will require significantly more time and manpower, and would be best suited as a research area for one or more qualified graduate or co-op student(s). Securing funding as well as enlisting the cooperation of Facilities Management to support such a project would be the two major tasks to enable the project to proceed.
[edit] Proposal
[edit] Strategies for Saving Energy in Multi-Residential Housing
- Propose this Pilot Project as part of Common Energy Report in April 2007. Use school term 2007-2008 to run the pilot.
Partners
UVIC Housing Department
UVIC Facilities Management
BC Hydro
Carmanah Technologies
Actions:
- Gain UVIC approval for access to the Residential Housing units.
- Gain UVIC Facilities Management approval for energy conservation and efficiency changes.
- Use the Energy Group (Business Building) Audit team to do room by room basic “energy audits” to define possible actions to save energy.
- Audit only if resident(s) agrees.
- Define and learn technique from BC Hydro.
- Determine student energy practices for us in #4.
- Design and implement two different “energy use cultural change” methods, one at each building. Use the third building as a baseline.
Perhaps the Policy and Political group could help here.
- Enlist partners in supplying some or all of the hard assets (ie LED light bulbs, CFL’s) and possibly some funding.
- Analyze past energy usage in each building to be able to normalize for major variables (winter temperatures and number of students).
- Make the changes recommended by the Audit.
- Implement the cultural change strategies.
- Measure actual results, month by month, that will translate into Carbon Credits.
- In April 2008, draw conclusions and publish the results to UVIC and CRD.
Results
- Gain knowledge and experience on how much energy can be save in multi-residential housing.
- Gain knowledge of what culture changes actually impact energy use.
- Create carbon credits for the UVIC Carbon Market.
[edit] MANAGE
[edit] Action
[edit] Proposal
[edit] Solar Hot Water
- UVic, like any other community, has an undeniable need for hot water. Be it for personal uses in on-campus housing or for operational necessities, hot water is something that we, as an institution, community and home, need for our daily activities. This, like many issues in energy use, is both a problem and an opportunity. Because solar hot water heating is an established and effective renewable technology, it has the potential to both decrease UVic’s need for fossil fuel energy, while also stimulating interest in this important technology.
- Solar Hot water technologies are currently being implemented in a variety of situations in B.C., from small-scale residential systems, to the 100 glazed collectors in Vancouver International Airport’s domestic wing. These systems are safe, reliable and emissions-free, and contrary to expectations they work effectively in temperate climates.
- To best determine whether including solar hot water in UVic’s energy supply is a feasible and beneficial option, a number of research questions need to be answered:
- How much energy and from what source does UVic (including on-campus housing, and operations) currently use to heat water? How many tones of carbon dioxide equivalents does this emit per year?
- Are there any other large-scale institutions including other universities in temperate climates where this sort of technology is used?
- What kinds of retrofits and physical restructuring is necessary for the conversion to this technology? What is the initial cost? What are the long run savings? i.e. how long would it take for this technology to pay for itself?
- What sort of system(s) would best work or the needs of UVic? i.e. would we need a variety of different solar hot water generators to meet our varied needs?
- Resources:
