Green Mountain College
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

FY 2007 was chosen because it is the earliest date for which we have energy consumption data and it is the baseline year we are using for all applicable credits provided data are available.

The program is set to 65-70 degrees F.

In the fall of 2012, all 80 outdoor lampposts around campus were replaced with LEDs using funding from the green revolving loan fund. This project added to the existing LED installments in the main campus parking lot and the 16 LED wall pack units on building exteriors that were completed in the 2011-2012 academic year.

In most public rooms such as bathrooms, vending machine rooms, laundry rooms, and common rooms, light sensors were installed in FY 2012. In total, two hundred dual technology occupancy sensors which are triggered by motion or body temperature have been installed in classrooms and bathrooms across campus. Motion detecting light fixtures were also installed in the renovated residence hall, SAGE, in the Waldron Gymnasium, and in several offices across campus in FY 2011.

In the fall of 2012, the REED (Renewable Energy and Ecological Design) block course built the Olwen Solar Garage on the campus farm. This garage uses passive solar heating as its only heat source. It has a large south-facing wall of glass, which lets in sun to heat a concreted heat slab that comprises the floor. This heat slab re-radiates heat throughout the day and night.

No ground-source heat pumps have been installed yet, but an air-to-air heat pump was installed in the Two Editor's Inn as part of renovation in 2014 to transform the Inn into a model of energy efficiency for older buildings.

In FY 2013, the biomass plant operated as a co-generation central heat plant run by woodchips. When heat demand was high, the high steam pressure of 275 psi was run through a turbine to create electricity before being piped through campus to be used for heat. In FY 2013, this plant produced 95,383 kWhs of electricity in addition to 28,904 MMBTUs of heat.

The burner in Boiler #2 in the back-up oil-run heating plant was replaced with a new high-efficiency burner. Also, the Bentley House, a historic building on campus, was completely retrofitted with new high value insulation, high efficiency lighting, and a new Buderus Boiler. Both of these projects were done in 2012-2013. In the summer of 2014, a thermal audit done by a class resulted in a renovation of the Two Editor's Inn on campus to be a model residence for energy efficiency for older buildings. The class audit was funded by the Student Campus Greening Fund. The result was a list of improvements that were then voted on by the Campus Sustainability Council as a candidate for funding from the Green Revolving Loan Fund. The Council passed the project, which also received funding from Efficiency Vermont in the form of rebates. The renovation was completed in June of 2014 by Weatherization Works and encompassed insulation in the basement, insulation in the attic, sealing of duct work, and installation of a cold climate heat pump (The first of its kind on campus). A team of two students incorporated media creation of the project into their internships. They made a video and an interpretive sign to hang inside the building. Also in the summer of 2014, the Killington Lodge was renovated to be more energy efficient. New, high efficiency windows were installed, and the heating system was upgraded to a more efficient model.

GMC uses an Automated Logic WebCTRL system that feeds data into a central location monitored by the facilities director and analyzed by the director of sustainability. This system enables GMC to track and trend energy usage in most buildings. Real-time data are also fed into a building dashboard that can be viewed on the GMC website and on a touchscreen in the student center, Withey Hall. In 2012-2013, we installed five new steam pressure reducing stations across campus with steam condensate flow meters that help us accurately measure steam flows in buildings. They also help us reduce troubleshooting time and thus allow us to operate as efficiently as possible. In 2014, we completed another major project to upgrade the steam pipes and steam traps in the biomass plant and in several office buildings on campus in order to run the system more efficiently and provide better data for the management systems.

To save energy, we decided to close our swimming pool in 2013. The pool was consuming an estimated 52,447 kWhs of energy per year. We estimate that closing the pool will save us $14,388 per year in electricity and heating costs. Closing the plant will also prevent the use of chlorine on campus.

We minimize leaf-blowing on campus by using rakes more often than gasoline-driven leaf blowers and by moving leaves just a short distance to the base of the tree where we create natural tree rings around trees to help nourish the root system. These leaves decompose throughout the year and become a natural mulch.

All vending machines on campus are Energy Star certified.

We work with Efficiency Vermont on a yearly basis to identify energy hogs, such as motors, lighting, and control set point opportunities. In FY 2013, we won the Energy Leadership Award from Efficiency Vermont, which challenged the business community in the state to achieve 7.5% energy savings between July, 2011 and June, 2013. Sixty-nine large businesses took up the Energy Leadership Challenge. Efficiency Vermont helped participating businesses create a comprehensive, long-term energy savings plan and provided technical and financial resources to help participants meet their goals. Only 31 of the participants, and just two colleges including Green Mountain College, achieved the 7.5% goal. More recently, in 2014, we completed a second phase of our PRV (pressure reducing valve) upgrade in the steam pipes coming from the central heating plant. This upgrade will allow the plant to run more efficiently. As part of the project, we are switching the back-up number six oil boilers to number two. The switch will result in less energy being consumed to pre-heat the oil and will result in reduced carbon emissions as number two oil is less carbon intensive.

Performance year is FY 2013. Heating and cooling degree days were based on a base temperature of 65 degrees F. HDD and CDD were estimated based on an average of two nearby weather stations and two sources of weather data.