Energy Improvement Update by Public Facilities for the Home Energy Seminar March 30, 2009
From Green Needham
Actions Taken in the Past 5 years
- Install atomizer on oil fired burner in Hillside to increase efficiency.
- Place all buildings in unoccupied mode when they are not operational, bringing the temperature down in the heating season to 58 degrees.
- Replaced existing lighting with more efficient T-8 ballasts and bulbs.
- Schedule summer programming so that limited resources for cooling would be required.
- Town committed to Community Energy Challenge to reduce energy consumption (adjusted for weather and cooling) by 10%.
- Tracking energy consumption through Energy Star’s benchmarking tool Portfolio Manager.
- In the process of installing a 2kW solar array at the new High Rock School.
- The new Public Service Administrative Building will be the first Town building to employ Geothermal heating and cooling
- Utilize energy management system to reduce peak demand charges.
Actions to be Taken within the Next Year
- Replacing pneumatic heating controls with digital controls in Mitchell.
- Changing Exterior doors in the Pollard and Hillside to more energy efficient ones.
- Installing motion/infrared switches in all storage area in the older schools.
- Turning down thermostats to 68 degrees during the heating months.
- Turning up thermostats to 75 degrees during the cooling months.
- Researching an energy performance contract which would allow the Town to make upgrades in its energy infrastructure and pay
for it with projected energy savings.
- Participate in Demand Response Program to receive payments for the ability to utilize onsite generators in the event of a power emergency. This reduces the need to build more energy generating power plants.
