Oberlin College
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

The 2006-2007 academic year was the first year after the ACUPCC was signed and we began more regular greenhouse gas inventorying. 2007 is used as our baseline year across categories. Our fiscal year follows the academic calendar beginning on July 1 and ending on June 30.

Building automation systems control the heating in many places on campus (e.g. Adam Joseph Lewis Center classrooms). Programable thermostats were installed in some village housing as part of Green EDGE Fund financed research. The institution employs building temperature standards throughout the year, with specific attention to the heating season. Our standards effect good energy management principles within buildings and the Central Heating Plant. Our heating schedule is dependent on the weather, and we are making every effort to keep the campus comfortable in the ever-changing Northern Ohio climate. The Central Heating Plant and the many campus buildings are very large, with complex heating/cooling systems that are not easily switched on and off. Our objective is to only have to turn on the heating systems in these buildings once and move to central steam/heating systems as soon as it makes sense. Due to the necessity to heat these areas for the cool fall nights, student living areas and classrooms are our first priority. Once completed, attention is turned to administrative buildings. Once the Central Heating Plant is ready to go on line, steam is supplied to the campus during key periods throughout the day/night when outside temperatures dip at and below 50 degrees. This is done to help take the chill out of our campus buildings. Due to annual steam repairs, manhole PM’s, and trap repairs made in the summer, some buildings may still be isolated from the system. As the distribution system heats up, sections of the system will be energized slowly to verify that other problems do not exist. These procedures are in support of campus Energy Conservation measures as part of the Oberlin College Environmental Policy.

Quite a few recent campus projects have included installation of LED lighting. Six outdoor parking lots were fitted with LED lights, as well as much of outdoor light posts. A recent renovation of the Office of the Dean of the Conservatory as well as in the gym used exclusively LED lighting. Phase one of the campus lighting retrofit included the installation of LEDs in DeCafe.

A number of buildings use lighting senors like the Adam Joseph Lewis Center and Kahn Hall. After a lighting control retrofit in Kahn, which added manual controls and daylight sensors to the existing motion sensors, electricity use in the residential areas decreased over 30%.

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center features passive solar thermal heating, as well as the main lobby of the Science Center.

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center (AJLC), Kohl Jazz Studies Building, Allen Memorial Art Museum, and the new Hotel at Oberlin all feature ground-source heat pumps.

The campus has invested monies, time, and expertise to a study looking at opportunities for capturing wasted heat in processes on campus as well as in the community.

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center (AJLC) was recommissioned in 2012. The Science Center is currently going through a retro-commissioning exercise (2016). In 2016, a Carbon Neutrality Resource Masterplan and Economic Approach study analyzed building energy use in campus buildings and identified high-priority energy conservation measures that can be deployed.

The Campus Resource Monitoring System provides real-time monitoring of resource consumption in residence halls and some academic and office buildings. The thermal metering within academic and administration buildings is a primary target of a recent multi-phased project to expand the metering and monitoring infrastructure on campus. Over $250,000 was invested in this project during the last few years and the creation of a half-time FTE dedicated to the project provides proof of real commitment from the College in this effort. Depending on the building, electricity, water, and/or steam are monitored.

Campus Dining Services replaces old refrigerators, ovens, etc. with the most efficient, available technology once the old appliances are no longer able to be used. Center for Information Technology (CIT) purchases EPEAT-certified computers and looks at the sustainability of purchased machines.

Pedestrian lighting as well as lighting on the buildings are being replaced by LED lights.

Campus Dining Services has had lights removed from most vending machines in order to save energy. This is a great example of the energy pyramid! Conservation over efficiency -- instead of using efficient bulbs using no bulbs at all!

Massive energy literacy education through behavioral change awareness and campaigns have occurred between the Office of Environmental Sustainability and the Psychology Department on campus (Community-Based Social Marketing Research Lab). We are teaching students, staff, and faculty to use energy in more efficient ways.

Our source energy ratio is so different in Oberlin because of the high concentration of renewables that we used 1.0 for our factor. Source of heating and cooling degree days is Climate Zone.com for Cleveland, Ohio.