Comfort meets conservation

Comfort meets conservation by Mark Anderson - 4.24.07
Article published at NWCurrent http://www.nwcurrent.com/efficiency/7106436.html

Hotel luxury and energy conservation are not the odd couple they once were — especially in the Northwest, where sustainability is increasingly considered a must.

Nowadays, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, Green Seal certification and Energy Star partnerships are among the well-respected tools with which hotels can reduce energy use and market themselves as environmental stewards.

“It comes back to the ability of hotels to demonstrate a plan for reducing the environmental footprint,” says Brian Kealoha of Energy Industries, a Hawaii-based energy project developer with several West Coast offices. “Five years ago, saving energy might have been considered cheap. Now a lot of guests factor it into their decision making, particularly in the Northwest.”

Water heating, space heating and lighting account for 77 percent of the nearly $4 billion the hotel industry spends on energy each year, according to the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders based in Washington, D.C.

“There’s wear and tear on hotels, so there’s constant opportunity to remodel and upgrade.” says Regina Hauser, executive director of Oregon Natural Step Network, a membership organization advocating sustainability. “That means there are lots of things they can control, and energy efficiency is often the low-hanging fruit.”

Kealoha rattles off some easy pickings — using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), low-flow showerheads, controllable thermostats and solar water heating, and washing clothes in cold water with newfangled ozone-additive systems — that pay for themselves.

Downtown Portland’s 782-room Hilton saves $1,600 per month on electricity since changing to CFLs, according to Mike McLeod, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, which is certified by Green Seal, a nonprofit which has developed science-based environmental certification standards for over 35 product categories. Rooms are equipped with miserly showerheads and will have motion-triggered thermostats before year’s end, McLeod says.

“People are pretty receptive to it all,” McLeod says. “They aren’t walking into dark hallways, and the new showerheads put out a better jet with less water. We’re not doing things that would hurt the guest experience.”

Downtown Portland’s venerable Heathman Hotel, working toward Energy Star certification, is upgrading its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, which should cut energy expenses by 20 to 30 percent.

Working behind the scenes is David Lee of Viking Energy Services, a Portland-based consultant who says that the 1927 building underwent total renovation in the mid-1980s, when the best HVAC system available was added.

“Hotel people usually put money into paint and carpet and fixtures,” says Lee. “They don’t pay that much attention to things in the background. So it’s a matter of them bringing their system up to 2007 with all the computer advances that have trickled down to HVAC.”

Portland’s Lloyd Center Doubletree, the first Oregon hotel to achieve Green Seal certification, employs a carbon calculator. Located in the hotel lobby, it allows guests to plug travel information into a Web site and come up with an amount, at $12 per metric ton, which offsets the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of their trip.

“We can pin down a very accurate assessment of how many metric tons of carbon are generated from a guest’s travel,” says Michael Luehrs, the 476-room hotel’s director of operations. “They pay a dollar amount — usually between $10 and $30 — and it gets invested directly into reducing CO2 emissions.”The hotel in April won a BEST award from the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development for its energy and water efficiency improvements, its food composting program and for educating its customers about how they can reduce their environmental footprint.

In Northern California, smaller hotels can take advantage of Honeywell’s Cool Control Plus program, which installs energy-management systems into guest rooms free of charge. The cost is picked up by San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric, which is required to fund energy conservation programs. Honeywell's VendingMiser, an energy-saving plug-and-play device, can be used in hotel vending machines to reduce the energy consumption of existing machines.
“These are the moms and pops where the families live in the hotels in many cases,” says Honeywell’s Wendy Brummer, the project’s manager. “The device is large and ugly and looks like a smoke detector, but it has great range. This program is something we hope to roll out throughout the rest of the country and offer to other utilities. We’re installing our hearts out.”
Another route hotels can take to save energy is by starting from scratch, a tack taken by the Hilton in Vancouver, Wash. — which by summer 2007 could become the world’s only hotel to hold both Green Seal and LEED certification.

The building is 30 percent more energy-efficient than city code requires, and its green measures include CO2 sensors that adjust the temperature in vacant meeting rooms and hallways, and a heat-reflecting roof. Commissioning and studies added $125,000 to the price of the 2005 project, according to Dale Farr of Fletcher Farr Ayotte, the building’s architect.
“We had to sell the idea to Hilton,” Farr says. “But after they saw the things it would do as far as savings and positive publicity, they decided to go ahead.”

The measures installed at the Hilton were “very aggressive,” says Michelle Missfeldt, key accounts manager at Clark Public Utilities. “The eventual payback is short. It sets a standard for other facilities like theirs."

Even the food and furniture come from nearby.
“It’s not going on a ship and a train and a truck,” says Gerry Link, the 226-room hotel’s general manager. “It comes from Oregon. That saves energy too.

“Going green doesn’t mean giving up luxury,” Link says. “Of course, if you have a bad night’s stay and can’t get hot water to take a shower, you’re not going to come back. A bad meal is a bad meal. Blending hospitality and sustainability is the key element.”

BOMA's Top 10 Energy Efficiency Strategies

With Earth Day coming up this weekend, the Building Operators and Maintenance Association (BOMA) has released its top 10 energy efficiency strategies:


1. Check that Equipment Is Functioning as Designed
Regularly inspect all equipment and controls to ensure they are functioning as designed.Double-check Energy Management System (EMS) programming to make sure that operations are optimized. One firm corrected an EMS software programming error from “And” to “Or” and saved $3,700 annually.

2. Consider Your Cleaning Options
Team Cleaning—Janitors go through the building as a team floor by floor, and the lighting is turned on/off as they progress through the building.Occupancy Sensors—Install motion sensors that will turn lights on when janitors are cleaning and automatically turn them off when the floor is vacant. Coordinate—Have janitors coordinate with the security crew to walk through the building and turn off equipment that was inadvertently left on by tenants.Day Cleaning—Why not have the janitors clean during the day while the lights are already on?

3. Encourage Tenants to Turn Off Equipment
During off hours, make sure to power down everything – such as copiers, kitchen equipment and task lights. Use cleaning/security personnel to turn off miscellaneous items such as coffee pots, kitchen equipment and individual office lights.

4. Use High Efficiency LED Exit Signs
Replace inefficient exits signs with high efficiency LED exit signs. LED exit signs operate 24/7 and have lower maintenance costs due to their extended life.

5. Institute an Energy Awareness Program
Create promotional items, post posters, write news releases—tell everyone about your commitment to energy savings. Use your company newsletter and company/building announcements to keep tenants informed about your energy savings goals and how they can both help and benefit.

6. Install Monitor Power Management Software
In U.S. companies alone, more than $1 billion a year is wasted on electricity for computer monitors that are left on when they shouldn’t be. Avoid those wastes by installing power management software for computer monitors and CPU/Hard Drives.

7. Change Incandescents to CFL and HID
CFL lights use less energy, have a longer lamp life, and produce less heat, thereby reducing heat load. Also, check the lighting in restrooms, closets, server rooms and some common areas. Thanks to the 2005 Energy Bill, lighting retrofits and upgrades that meet energy efficiency requirements may be tax deductible, up to $.60 psf.

8. Harvest Daylight
Locate workstations requiring high illumination adjacent to windows.

9. Evaluate After Hours Usage
Talk to the tenants to learn if they are actually using their space during the lease-required operating hours. Adjust building operating hours to reflect actual tenant usage.

10. Adjust Ventilation
Reduce exhaust and outdoor-air ventilation rates within codes. Take a look at the fans and adjust ventilation in unoccupied and low-density areas to reduce the ventilation to a practical, yet comfortable level.

Help reduce carbon emissions through programmable thermostats

National averages show heating and air conditioning account for about 56% of your energy use. Heating is the largest energy expense in most homes, accounting for almost two-thirds of annual energy bills in colder areas of the country. Conversely in the warmer parts of the country, cooling bills have increased significantly with the rise in the earth's temperature.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, heating systems in the United States emit a billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and about 12% of the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emitted by the U.S.. Reducing energy use for heating is the single most effective way to reduce your home's contribution to global environmental problems.

The best thing you can do is use programmable thermostats that will set back temperatures when you are at work so you are not heating or cooling when no one is home. A programmable thermostat is a device that allows you to pre-set ahead of time to move the temperature up or down automatically. Many utilities offer rebates towards the purchase of these devices.

As an individual this is the most impactful thing you can do in your home to reduce carbon emissions. Go do it today!

Climate Change 2007

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th assesment is coming out shortly, but they have already released their summary report for policymakers which can be viewed here: http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM6avr07.pdf

Here are a few highlights from this document:

Current knowledge about observed impacts of climatechange on the natural and human environment:

Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.

Other effects of regional climate changes on natural and human environments are emerging, although many are difficult to discern due to adaptation and non-climatic drivers.

Current knowledge about future impacts:

More specific information is now available across a wide range of systems and sectors concerning the nature of future impacts, including for some fields not covered in previous assessments.

More specific information is now available across the regions of the world concerning the nature of future impacts, including for some places not covered in previous assessments.

Magnitudes of impact can now be estimated more systematically for a range of possible increases in global average temperature.

Current knowledge about responding to climate change

Some adaptation is occurring now, to observed and projected future climate change, but on a limited basis.

Adaptation will be necessary to address impacts resulting from the warming which is already unavoidable due to past emissions..

A wide array of adaptation options is available, but more extensive adaptation than is currently occurring is required to reduce vulnerability to future climate change.

There are barriers, limits and costs, but these are not fully understood.
Vulnerability to climate change can be exacerbated by the presence of other stresses.

Future vulnerability depends not only on climate change but also on development pathway.

Many impacts can be avoided, reduced or delayed by mitigation.

A portfolio of adaptation and mitigation measures can diminish the risks associated with climate change.

Impacts of climate change will vary regionally but, aggregated and discounted to the present, they are very likely to impose net annual costs which will increase over time as global temperatures increase.

In the news

Full story can be found here:

http://starbulletin.com/2007/04/09/news/story03.html

Hot public schools are in line to cool off

Global warming and academic calendar changes prompt the move to update heat data collection
By Alexandre Da Silva mailto:Silvaadasilva@starbulletin.com

The state Department of Education is spending $23,000 to make sure air conditioners are actually going to the hottest public schools first.

The DOE hired Energy Industries Inc. to update its decade-old ranking of school temperatures. The company will compile data for a heat scorecard with information from various weather instruments as well as elevation and solar zone maps, most of which were not available when the original list was done in 1996.

With an average temperature of 87.15 degrees, Kihei Elementary and Lokelani Intermediate are first in line to get air conditioning.

The current ranking, which is limited to airport data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lists the average Hawaii school at 84.63 degrees between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. during the warmest months from August to September.

School temperatures range from 77 to 87 degrees, with most campuses reporting between 82 and 86 degrees, according to the list.

But the temperature ranking needs to be upgraded to consider possible weather changes from global warming and to ensure it accurately reflects conditions at each school, said Duane Kashiwai, public works administrator for the DOE. Also, demand for air conditioners is expected to rise as a shorter, seven-week summer break replaces the traditional 10-week recess starting this school year, he said.

"We hope the (new) list will be rather similar," Kashiwai said.

Air conditioners are being installed at Kihei Elementary and Lokelani Intermediate, which top the list at 87.15 degrees. Next in line are Pohakea, Hickam and Ewa Beach Elementary, followed by Ilima Intermediate and Campbell High School -- all at 86.6 degrees.

Brian Kealoha of Energy Industries Inc. said the company will gather information from "weather bugs," instruments that record humidity and wind speed at 33 isle schools, as well as statewide solar maps developed a few years ago to check the potential of sunlight energy in Hawaii.
Teachers have complained that students become sleepy from the summer heat and that it is harder for them to teach in hot days.

Of the state's 285 schools, just 21 are fully air-conditioned, though some have the units in main offices and some classrooms, according to the DOE. Besides air conditioning, the DOE is also looking at solar venting, insulation and fans to cool classrooms.

The department, which has estimated it would cost about $1 billion to install air conditioners in all schools, has gotten $2.5 million to reduce classroom heat in past years.

The DOE received $10 million for the work in the current fiscal year, and it is now asking lawmakers for $5 million for fiscal 2008, said Sanford Beppo, capital improvement planner in the Facilities Development Branch.

A proposal that would have given the department $40 million in the next two years to air-condition schools has stalled in the Legislature.

Metal halide safety at question

For quite some time I have been talking to thousands of people who run school gymnasiums, factories, big-box stores and other large spaces all across the country that they should be replacing their metal halide lamps with T-5 fluorescent lamps, or even T-8 fluorescent lamps. Besides significantly improving the quality of light, T-5 and T-8 linear fluorescent fixtures use around 35-50% LESS ENERGY for the same lumen output of metal halides. T-5's last for 24,000 hours on average and don't have the restrike time issues that metal halide lamps.

However last week I heard about this story http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070329/ap_on_re_us/broken_bulbs where four people say their eyes were damaged, perhaps permanently, by ultraviolet radiation from a broken metal halide lamp in an Oregon school gym. It was quite concerning that this could actually be the cause.

Since that time the Oregon Senate has proposed Senate Bill 479 which passed Friday 28-1 that requires the changing of metal halide lamp types to ones that shut off within 15 minutes of the lamp being broken.

Instead of spending all that money for a solution that still would be energy intensive, the Oregon Legislature should look at other technologies that are not only safer, but reduce the amount of energy consumed.

The bottom line is that if you have or know of people who have metal halide lamps, let them know they can cut their lighting costs significantly by looking at T-5 or T-8 solutions. But more importantly, they are reducing energy demand and their carbon footprint.

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California's proposed ban on incandescents

Could it really happen? Could the incandescent light bulb, one of Thomas Edison's greatest inventions, be no more in California? If lawmakers have their way, it could very well happen.

While the incandescent bulbs have been the standard in lighting since Mr. Edison's creation, other technologies like compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), cold cathode, and light emitting diodes (LED) have all made advances to one day replace the incandescent bulb.

Compact fluorescent lamps can reduce wattage of incandescent bulbs by 75% while lasting 10 times as long. So if its so good, why don't we all as consumers just make the switch on our own without government getting involved?

1. Cost. Human nature is to evaluate a purchase on initial cost. When dealing with lighting, the initial cost is only 5% of the total cost of light. The other 95% is in energy cost. However most of us will buy what is cheaper more often than not.

2. Quality of light. While other technologies have made improvements, they don't match the warm feel of incandescent lights. Without getting too techincal, it is amazing that the first light bulb ever created has one of the best color rendering index ratings of artifical light. Too bad it is more of a heater than a light, which is why it uses so much energy. I tried changing out a few lights years ago in my house only to have an upset wife. I continue to do it, and she is starting to notice less and less. Either I am wearing her down, or the CFL lighting is getting better.

3. The stores. Incandescent lamps will burn out 10 times as fast than CFL's. That means you have to go back to the store more often. That is good business. Why would they want you to come less often?

California is usually the leader in the U.S. on setting these types of policies and standards, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

If you want to read more about this, here is an article that appeared in NW Current.com ( http://www.nwcurrent.com/policy/6649592.html ) .

March to 'ban the bulb' heats up by Becky Brun - 3.27.07

How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb? In California, it will take 41 to pass Assembly Bill 722, which would require the phase-out of the incandescent bulb by 2012.
Introduced Feb. 22 by Chair of the Assembly’s Utilities and Commerce Committee Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), the bill has had a ripple effect. The same week AB 722 was formally introduced in California, legislators in Australia passed a similar law making it the first country to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs. A week later, the European Lamp Companies Federation, whose members represent 95 percent of Europe’s lighting manufacturers — including General Electric, Siemens and Royal Philips Electronics — released a statement calling for a governmental shift to more efficient residential lighting products.
States such as Connecticut and New Jersey have announced similar efforts to “ban the bulb,” and Philips Lighting North America announced on March 14 that it has joined the Alliance to Save Energy and other energy-efficiency advocacy groups calling for legislation that would phase out inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2016.
“It’s a good sound bite,” says Tom Eckman, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s manager of conservation resources. “It gets the message across that we have to get something more efficient than incandescents.”
But Eckman says banning the traditional pear-shaped bulb is not necessarily the best way to encourage more people to buy CFLs. He argues that adopting better performance standards for all light bulbs (increasing the required amount of lumens per watt), rather than altogether banning a certain type, would put the onus on the market to determine the best way to accomplish the goal (see “Current Commentary: Lighting efficiency: Is this all there is?,” nwcurrent, April 2007).
For example, General Electric, keen to avoid seeing its founder’s invention get left in the dust by CFLs and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), announced in early March that it is developing high-efficiency incandescent lamps that “provide the same high light quality, brightness and color as current incandescent lamps while saving energy and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Catchy slogans such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Savings With a Twist” and Wal-Mart’s new “Change a Light, Change the World” have helped elevate the CFL market. As of March 23, 2007, an estimated more than 22 million CFLs had been sold in United States just since the beginning of the year, according to the nonprofit 18 Seconds.
Given the strong regional commitments to energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewable energy, could the trend meander into the Northwest? Local energy experts seem divided on the issue.
Even with Wal-Mart aiming to sell 100 million CFLs in 2007, it could take more than robust marketing campaigns to convince consumers to make the switch, says Brian Kealoha, vice president of sales for Energy Industries, a Northwest engineering and consulting firm.
“The market itself would never allow that to happen,” Kealoha says. Because the incandescent is the lighting industry’s number-one seller, he continues, “there is no incentive for them to switch over.” But if California passes the bill, he adds, others will likely follow.
Kealoha works mostly with commercial clients that want to increase the energy-efficiency of their buildings. Lighting is a major focus of his efforts — mainly because incandescent bulbs consume about 10 percent of all electricity use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Replacing a 75-watt incandescent light bulb with a 20-watt CFL would save customers $55 over the life of the bulb, not to mention keeping 1,300 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Liz Klumpp, senior policy analyst for Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, says while Washington has a strong track record for pursuing high energy-efficiency standards for products and within its building code, CFLs are a different sort of beast: Because of their mercury content, CFLs need to be recycled (see “Current Commentary: CFL conundrum,” nwcurrent, Feb. 2007).
“I don’t know if the state of Washington or the solid-waste department is prepared for that,” she says. She adds that although the state pursues higher codes and standards in some situations, rather than letting the market decide, mandates might not be as well-suited for CFLs. However, she notes the Washington Building Code Council in November 2006 approved changes to the state energy code (See “Efficiency measure escapes code,” nwcurrent, Feb. 2006), including a restriction on outdoor lighting. The measure, which is scheduled to go into effect in July, mandates that all residential external lights utilize either a CFL fixture or combined daylight and motion sensors.
Oregon and Washington will likely consider some type of lighting efficiency legislation if AB 722 passes, says Eckman.
Klumpp, on the other hand, is not convinced the bill is a slam dunk.
“That’s a huge ‘if’,” she says.