Campus-wide energy-efficiency program aims to deliver $3.5 million in energy and operational savings

By By BD+C Staff | November 17, 2011

Honeywell and Merced College kicked off an energy conservation initiative that aims to reduce the school’s annual operating costs by $180,000 through energy-efficient building upgrades.

The program also includes the launch of an enhanced college curriculum focused on teaching conservation strategies that utilize the energy-efficient building upgrades as a real-world case study for classroom learning.

As part of the project, Honeywell will make building infrastructure improvements to 16 campus buildings, including the installation of energy-efficient lighting and upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Overall, these campus building improvements are expected to trim the college’s electricity use by more than 1.5 million kilowatt-hours annually - enough energy to power nearly 180,000 homes.

Merced College and Honeywell will use the school’s energy usage statistics to develop a course curriculum on sustainability, and raise awareness among students of the positive impact conservation practices contribute to the community. As part of this program, using Honeywell’s Energy Management System (EMS), Sustainability Interns will track resource usage in 16 campus buildings. The interns will develop a newsletter to update students, faculty and staff on the program’s progress and help lead additional campus-wide conservation efforts, such as recycling competitions and car-sharing programs.

Honeywell will complete the building system enhancements and future maintenance under a 15-year, $3.1 million performance contract. This will allow school officials to pay for the upgrades using the cost savings generated, which Honeywell guarantees. As a result, the program won’t increase school budgets or require additional funding.

Honeywell will implement a variety of conservation measures across campus buildings, including:

· Sub-meters in 16 campus buildings to provide facility personnel with a more granular view of energy usage throughout campus from a centralized energy management system

· Updated HVAC systems for the gymnasium, student union, theater and computer services building to improve energy efficiency

· High-efficiency lighting for building exteriors and interiors, including light-emitting diode (LED) lights. BD+C

Before you get your shorts in a knot, I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or even mathematics; to the contrary, I love all four “STEM” disciplines (I’m lying about the math). But I question whether we need to be building K-12 schools that overly emphasize or are totally devoted to STEM.

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