Overview
The facility at 76-01 147th Street in Flushing is fully heated and air conditioned. The 52 room dormitory is cooled by a Carrier 50 Ton air cooled chiller and heated by two Genesis A.O. Smith Gas Fired Hydronic boilers of 750,000 Btuh input each. This area is controlled by built in fan coil thermostats.
The gymnasium, cafeteria, classrooms, and larger meeting rooms are heated and cooled by Carrier Air Cooled Packaged Rooftop Units. All the systems are zone controlled by space thermostats.
Hot water is produced by two Mighty Therm 500 MBH volume water heaters and stored in four 115 gallon hot water storage tanks. This is used for the dormitory showers and hand washing.
An ASHRAE Level II energy survey will be conducted according the the ASHRAE Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits. This will not be a software-based study. A whole building energy assessment is being proposed for this facility. A data driven (inverse) energy modeling approach was selected for this study, whereby, input and output variables are known and measured with the objective of making a mathematical description of the system and its parameters. Actual performance data will be used from the existing building for model development and identification. Nonintrusive data will be obtained under normal operating conditions. Under this method building consumption is analyzed and predicted when effected by improper equipment operation, unintended operation, changes in thermostat settings, changes in ventilation rates, changes in lighting levels, a series of energy saving retrofits are analyzed, and optimization of HVAC control and operation are studied (ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals, 19-1).
Site Survey – A building survey will be conducted by walking through the facility, observing the equipment and obtaining knowledge on how the components function.
Operation and Maintenance – A review of the operation and maintenance of major components shall be conducted in order to identify energy efficiency measures. These may include adding controls to shut down equipment, changing fan belts to improve performance or cleaning fins on coils to improve efficiency.
Building Monitoring and measuring – Measurements are recorded throughout the facility for lumens of light, air flow from fans, a range of temperatures and BTU meters are used on the building envelope. Furthermore, a thermal imaging camera will be used to study leakage through the building envelope and also used on mechanical components to check proper function. A combustion analysis will be performed on boilers using a combustion analyzer. Data loggers will be installed on major systems in order to measure energy consumption.
Development of Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) – A compilation of energy efficiency measures shall be assembled based on the results of gathered data from the walk through survey, measured data and modeling.
Engineering Analysis – An engineering analysis will be conducted on discovered EEMs in order to determine the feasibility of implementation.
Financial Analysis – A simple payback analysis will be conducted and in some cases a life cycle cost analysis shall be performed to determine the economic impact of the EEMs. Actual utility rates, where available, will be used for the energy analysis. Esitmates for implementation, where appropriate, will be based on energy savings in dollars, MMBtu’s, kBtu’s, Therms, kW, kWh, etc…Vendor and contractor pricing will also be used for the calculations.The results of these calculations are used to prioritize the list of EEMs.
Measurement and verification – Continued monitoring of energy is essential to the saving of energy and will result in financial savings. A measurement and verification program will be tailor made for the facility to be able to verify savings and monitor energy usage.