Energy Management

Energy Conservation Goal

The Redwoods Community College District will continue to be as energy efficient as possible without jeopardizing the Mission of the College or the health and safety of the staff and students that use the facilities. 

History

Construction of the Eureka campus began in the late 1960s.  At that time energy conservation was not as large an issue as it is today.  In fact, our power distributor (PG&E) was encouraging individuals and business to use more electricity, and the supply seemed endless.  Then in the 1970s the oil embargo and the tightening of supplies were starting to surface.  At that time the College started a program of recognizing and proposing plans to reduce energy consumption.  On February 1, 1982, the District signed Resolution 267, which stated in brief that the College would strive to conserve energy. The area of Energy Conservation was new, and at times drastic measures were made to reduce energy without regard to the people it might affect.  An example was to de-lamp fixtures without regard to light output, throwing the workspace lighting below the acceptable levels.  Desk lamps soon appeared and the consumption of energy began to rise.  New “smart time clocks” were installed to control boilers.  The boilers would be shut off at night causing the metals to cool, then in the morning, without regard to outside air temperatures, the boilers would be started under load to high fire.  Tubes would leak, and this type of use shortened the service life of the equipment.  Slowly over the next decade, fluorescent tubes were placed back into lamps, desk lamps disappeared, the Trimax (smart time clock) system was adjusted to keep the boilers on low fire through the night, and new additional lighting was installed. 

In the late 1980’s and 90’s, energy consumption was the same as before any conservation measures had been put in place.  During this time, the Director of Facilities was granted,  through the California Energy Commission a grant for an energy study at the Eureka Campus.  In 1992 Newcomb Anderson Associates was contracted by the State and prepared their report.  The report identified many cost saving areas, including lighting changes, boiler and heating changes, control and systems changes.  The District did not have funding sources to make these changes and the report was shelved.

Then in 1994-95, the College was able to put funding in place to do energy projects and pay for these through savings, rebates and low interest loans.  The District hired Eastern Utility Cogenics and had a second energy audit performed at the Eureka campus.  The two reports were compared and showed the same types of savings in the same areas. These recommendations included many of the same modifications that were done in the early 1980's with one difference, that new technologies would still conserve energy and provide the same, or in some cases better lighting levels, heating and ventilation for the staff and students. 

The College proceeded with the project and would do the following:

• Energy Efficient Lighting
• Upgrade all fluorescent lighting with electronic ballasts and T-8 lamps
• Replace opal lenses with clear prismatic lenses
• De-lamp fluorescent fixtures and add specular reflectors where appropriate
• Convert exit signs to LED technology
• Replace incandescent fixtures with compact fluorescent, meeting IES illumination standards
• Modify perimeter and install new light fixtures in the existing Library
• In lecture rooms, replace general lighting with dimmable fluorescent lighting and replace lamps for presentation area with halogen lamps
• In the auditorium, replace house lighting with halogen flood lamps
• Replace indirect and industrial fixtures using HO lamps with downward cutoff optics
• Add new parking lot lights in remote lots
• Install occupancy sensors in all public restrooms
• Conversion of Electric Resistance Heating to Gas Heating 
• Replace electric resistance unit heaters in shops with gas unit heaters or low intensity vented radiant heaters
• Replace electric baseboard and wall heaters in Maintenance, Modular, and the Child Development Center with gas wall heaters
• Energy Management System
• Optimize Start and Stop of heating and ventilation equipment
• Setback temperature control
• Supply air temperature optimization on multi-zone equipment
• Optimize hot water temperatures
• Mix air/economizer control optimization
• Holiday scheduling
• Motion detector initiation of occupied set points
• Remote override
• Humidity and ventilation control at indoor pool

The project was completed in 1996 and was a success.  The yearly savings as reported was 738,889 KWH, which is a substantial savings, and in addition, the College received an $82,000.00 rebate from PG&E.  The College submitted our project and the results to the U.S. Environmental Protect Agency’s Energy Star^® Buildings and Green Lights Program.  The College received a Certificate of Achievement and was selected to join the 1997 Honor Society.  The College had confidence in the Facilities Department to be able to maintain and operate the newly installed equipment efficiently.  Some College staff were sent to the Honeywell headquarters for a total systems programming and repair classes so that these types of changes can be made in-house.  The cost was significantly less than having the contractor monitor the usage and make changes off-site.

Today
The College continues its efforts in the conservation area, and this can been seen in the two new buildings, Learning Resource Center and the Child Development Center, which finished construction in late 2002. Both buildings will be tied to the EMS (Energy Management System) for both heat and light and will have total space lighting and occupancy sensors.  The LRC also uses natural light during the day to reduce the need for electrical lighting. The District has also started to replace the heating boilers with new and more efficient units at all the campus sites.  At the Eureka Campus, a new irrigation system with digital controls to conserve water and maintenance costs was installed.
The College is testing electric carts for on-campus use to help reduce the greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels such as gasoline.

Future projects will include connecting the campus locations in Ft Bragg and Crescent City to the EMS over T-1 lines so that they can be monitored and take advantage of the Honeywell system.  The Del Norte campus heating system will be changed to a forced air system to reduce unnecessary heating of a slab floor. Possible wind generation or solar may also be looked at for future projects. The continued testing of non-fossil fuel vehicles such as electric carts to replace an aging fleet of gas-guzzlers.

The College has also contracted with SPURR (School Project for Utility Rate Reduction) for the purchase of natural gas and is also a non-core user.  This also helps the College control energy costs.

Energy Star is a U.S. registered mark