| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 66.24 |
| Liaison | Justin Mog |
| Submission Date | Feb. 27, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Louisville
OP-5: Building Energy Consumption
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
5.41 / 6.00 |
Glen
Todd Asst Dir HSC Phys Plant Svcs Physical Plant |
Figures needed to determine total building energy consumption:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Grid-purchased electricity | 436,776.70 MMBtu | 496,050 MMBtu |
| Electricity from on-site renewables | 680.95 MMBtu | 0 MMBtu |
| District steam/hot water (sourced from offsite) | 0 MMBtu | 0 MMBtu |
| Energy from all other sources (e.g., natural gas, fuel oil, propane/LPG, district chilled water, coal/coke, biomass) | 324,141.60 MMBtu | 466,001.75 MMBtu |
| Total | 761,599.25 MMBtu | 962,051.75 MMBtu |
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or 3-year periods):
| Start Date | End Date | |
| Performance Year | July 1, 2016 | June 30, 2017 |
| Baseline Year | Jan. 1, 2006 | Dec. 31, 2006 |
A brief description of when and why the building energy consumption baseline was adopted (e.g. in sustainability plans and policies or in the context of other reporting obligations):
The baseline was created during our first greenhouse gas emissions inventory conducted in 2009-2010. It involved three years of prior data and was as far back as we had reliable data.
Gross floor area of building space:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Gross floor area of building space | 9,983,269.12 Gross square feet | 6,516,785 Gross square feet |
Source-site ratio for grid-purchased electricity:
Total building energy consumption per unit of floor area:
| Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
| Site energy | 0.08 MMBtu per square foot | 0.15 MMBtu per square foot |
| Source energy | 0.17 MMBtu per square foot | 0.31 MMBtu per square foot |
Percentage reduction in total building energy consumption (source energy) per unit of floor area from baseline:
Degree days, performance year (base 65 °F / 18 °C):
| Degree days (see help icon above) | |
| Heating degree days | 3,161 Degree-Days (°F) |
| Cooling degree days | 1,976 Degree-Days (°F) |
Floor area of energy intensive space, performance year:
| Floor Area | |
| Laboratory space | 496,406.70 Square feet |
| Healthcare space | 355,393.51 Square feet |
| Other energy intensive space |
EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:
Building energy consumption (site energy) per unit of EUI-adjusted floor area per degree day, performance year:
Documentation (e.g. spreadsheet or utility records) to support the performance year energy consumption figures reported above:
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to shift individual attitudes and practices in regard to energy efficiency (e.g. outreach and education efforts):
In 2012, UofL installed real-time energy-monitoring and display technology in four residence halls: Unitas Tower, Louisville Hall, Kurz Hall, and Community Park. These online Building Dashboards allow residents to get a handle on their energy usage and to get real-time feedback about conservation efforts within these residence halls.
Our Building Dashboards help UofL residents gauge progress during our annual energy conservation competition and helped UofL finish in the top ten energy reducers in the spring 2012 Campus Conservation Nationals!
UofL's new LEED Gold Student Recreation Center opened in October 2013, featuring geothermal heating and cooling, solar hot water, rainwater capture & storage for irrigation, and a Siemens building dashboard available in the lobby on an interactive touch-screen that displays the performance of these systems.
A brief description of energy use standards and controls employed by the institution (e.g. building temperature standards, occupancy and vacancy sensors):
The Siemens Apogee software and the TAC I/A software include scheduling features which allow building HVAC units to be turned off and/or temperatures to be set back during unoccupied times.
These software systems are used for the vast majority of buildings on campus.
The University shall strive to maintain room temperatures as follows:
During Heating Season:
Occupied Hours 66-72 Degrees F.
Unoccupied Hours 55-65 Degrees F.
During Cooling Season:
Occupied Hours 74-78 Degrees F.
Unoccupied Hours 78-85 Degrees F.
A brief description of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting and other energy-efficient lighting strategies employed by the institution:
UofL is beginning to install LED lighting, with its first major installation in outdoor lighting for a new parking lot featuring dozens of lights.
A brief description of passive solar heating, geothermal systems, and related strategies employed by the institution:
UofL's LEED Gold Student Recreation Center opened in October 2013, featuring not only a 134 MMBtu solar hot water system, but 128,000 square feet of space heated and cooled by the University's first geothermal system. The geothermal heat pipe is a closed-loop vertical well system with a total of 180 wells 400 feet deep. This 4960 MMBtu system provides ample reserve capacity and is expected to generate about 22% annual energy cost savings compared to a conventional system. It is also considerably simpler and cheaper to maintain. Occupational use of the new facility has tripled when compared to the previous Recreational Center, yet energy costs were reduced to provide UofL with almost $100,000 of savings per year.
We are investigating renewable energy options to passively heat & cool UofL buildings. At Burhans Hall on our Shelby campus, in collaboration with the Department of Energy and the Kentucky Renewable Energy Consortium, UofL's Renewable Energy Applications Laboratory (REAL) installed an experimental solar heat pipe wall for indoor climate control that may prove to be twice as efficient as other solar systems in places such as Louisville with moderate sun and cold winters. In 2011, the system was moved for further experimentation and monitoring to a new Passive Solar Test Facility constructed at the Speed School of Engineering at the Brook Street railroad fly-over, just south of Eastern Pkwy. This is the only such device of its kind in the world. The walls, floor and roof are built with structural insulated panels (SIP’s). The building is divided into two rooms with an insulated interior wall to allow side-by-side testing of two systems. Currently installed are two solar heat pipe systems, which produce net heat gains approximately twice as large as typical direct gain systems. Heating performance of these two prototypes has been compared, and strategies for reducing unwanted gains during the summer have also been tested. These experiments were funded by the Department of Energy, and are reported in the following articles:
1. Robinson BS & Sharp MK, “Reducing unwanted gains during the cooling season for a solar heat pipe system,” Solar Energy 115:16-32, 2015.
2. Robinson BS & Sharp MK, “Heating season performance improvements for a solar heat pipe system,” Solar Energy 110:39-49, 2014.
3. Robinson BS, Chmielewski NE, Knox Kelecy A, Brehob EG, Sharp MK, “Heating season performance of a full-scale heat pipe assisted solar wall,” Solar Energy 87:76–83, 2013.
A brief description of co-generation employed by the institution, e.g. combined heat and power (CHP):
n/a
A brief description of the institution's initiatives to replace energy-consuming appliances, equipment and systems with high efficiency alternatives (e.g. building re-commissioning or retrofit programs):
UofL has made massive investments to retrofit its existing facilities in order to increase the efficiency of our operations, reduce costs, consume less energy and water, and produce less pollution as a result.
This $50 million project, involving 88 buildings (6.2 million square feet) on all three UofL campuses will directly save the university $4.4 million every year and reduce our annual carbon dioxide emissions alone by over 46,000 tons (the equivalent of removing 7,690 cars from the road).
With these improvements, UofL expects to reduce its utility bill by about $12,086 per day!
These efforts have already produced documented results. In FY 2011-12, Belknap Campus reduced fuel use 48%, electricity use 27%, and water use 31%. Efficiency-minded campus users helped us exceed our engineers' expectations! They had predicted fuel use to decline nearly 40% and electricity use to drop at least 20% annually.
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.