Energy improvements, staff training, & occupant satisfaction on campus.
Colliers Project Leaders was engaged to provide retro-commissioning services as part of Eastern Connecticut State University’s participation in the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund’s Retro-Commissioning Program. Colliers Project Leaders performed a retro-commissioning survey of thirteen academic, residence hall, dining hall, library, student center, public safety, heating plant and science center buildings encompassing 688,183 square feet.
Objectives of the retro-commissioning survey included:
- Improve building energy and operating performance
- Identify and resolve building system operation control and maintenance issues
- Improve the buildings’ ENERGY STAR rating
- Document system operation, identify O&M staff training needs
- Increase equipment life-cycle
- Reduce or eliminate occupant complaints and increase inhabitant satisfaction
- Ensure the persistence of the improvements over the buildings’ life
Our proposed solutions to reduce the University’s energy consumption included:
- Implement unoccupied air flow setpoints for the Science Building
- Install dual enthalpy economizer sequences
- Implement demand control ventilation sequences
- Apply critical valve differential pressure reset on hydronic systems
- Implement critical zone static pressure reset on VAV systems
- Reduced CHW pumping to increase Delta T
The total yearly electrical savings for the project is calculated at 1,511,648 kWh. The project also achieves a yearly Fossil Fuel MMBTU savings of 4,098. This represents a total yearly savings estimate of $263,342. Total implementation costs are estimated at $518,044 providing a simple payback of 2.6 years.
