Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 58.54
Liaison Jay Price
Submission Date March 2, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Tennessee at Knoxville
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.86 / 6.00 Preston Jacobsen
Sustainability Manager
Facilities Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total building energy consumption, all sources (transportation fuels excluded):
Performance Year Baseline Year
Total building energy consumption 2,061,025 MMBtu 1,737,152 MMBtu

Purchased electricity and steam:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Grid-purchased electricity 785,556 MMBtu 841,387.60 MMBtu
District steam/hot water 0 MMBtu 0 MMBtu

Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Gross floor area 15,495,697 Gross square feet 14,567,031 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive space, performance year::
Floor Area
Laboratory space 1,041,465 Square feet
Healthcare space 114,575 Square feet
Other energy intensive space

Degree days, performance year (base 65 °F)::
Degree days (see help icon above)
Heating degree days 3,845
Cooling degree days 1,589

Source-site ratios::
Source-Site Ratio (see help icon above)
Grid-purchased electricity 3.14
District steam/hot water 1.20

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or 3-year periods)::
Start Date End Date
Performance Year July 1, 2014 June 30, 2015
Baseline Year July 1, 2007 June 30, 2008

A brief description of when and why the building energy consumption baseline was adopted:
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A brief description of any building temperature standards employed by the institution:

As part of an energy reduction campaign in 2008, the university adopted a policy that created new temperature set points for campus buildings. In accordance with this policy, buildings are be set to 68 degrees during warming seasons and to 76 degrees during cooling seasons. Additionally, Facilities Services adjusts temperature set points during holidays when students are gone for extended periods of time.


A brief description of any light emitting diode (LED) lighting employed by the institution:

UT's Thompson-Boling Arena, the largest on-campus single-sport arena in the country, uses LED fixtures for lighting, saving up to 85% of energy compared to conventional arena metal halide lights (http://tntoday.utk.edu/2014/02/24/thompsonboling-arena-world-cuttingedge-lighting/). It is now common practice to replace any lights in buildings with LED lights when maintenance is required.


A brief description of any occupancy and/or vacancy sensors employed by the institution:

Classroom and office lights in UT's LEED certified Ayres Hall run on motion sensors to conserve energy when people are not in the room as well as popular rooms in other buildings around campus.


A brief description of any passive solar heating employed by the institution:

The Landscape Site Standards planning document proposes that new buildings should be designed in order to benefit from a passive solar response, without compromising the passive solar response of existing spaces.


A brief description of any ground-source heat pumps employed by the institution:

Geothermal heating and cooling is used in buildings in Sorority Village.


A brief description of any cogeneration technologies employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any building recommissioning or retrofit program employed by the institution:

UTK has undertaken several retrofitting and upgrading projects to increase energy efficiency, including lighting system upgrades, window replacements and replacing building transformers.


A brief description of any energy metering and management systems employed by the institution:

Every fall resident hall energy use is metered for an energy reduction competition. Additionally energy use is tracked to calculate energy savings prompted by the Switch Your Thinking Campaign. Finally, UT is working on installing individual meters for all buildings on campus to better meter and manage individual building energy use.


A brief description of the institution's program to replace energy-consuming appliances, equipment and systems with high efficiency alternatives:

New electronics and appliances purchased by UTK must be Energy Star certified. This policy states: "Purchases shall meet present needs while promoting sustainable practices that support ecological, human, social and economic vitality and awareness for both the campus and the community." Our energy team also takes time to replace electric motors with more efficient motors during maintenance activities. Automatic shutdown of HVAC equipment during unoccupied periods has also been installed.


A brief description of any energy-efficient landscape design initiatives employed by the institution:

The Landscape Site Standards planning document proposes that new buildings should be designed to preserve healthy and mature trees, in part to utilize their shade to help reduce energy consumption.


A brief description of any vending machine sensors, lightless machines, or LED-lit machines employed by the institution:

The lights in campus vending machines were turned off a couple of years ago. This is part of an effort by the VolCard Office to save energy on campus. By turning off lights in vending machines, the Office is saving campus approximately $7,000 in energy costs per year.


A brief description of other energy conservation and efficiency initiatives employed by the institution:

The Switch Your Thinking campaign, initiated in fall 2008, calls for the entire UT community to take action to conserve energy. Faculty, staff, students, and visitors are urged to reduce campus energy use by incorporating the following actions into their daily routine:turn off lights when not in the office for more than one hour, turn off computers when not in the office for more than an hour, use a power strip in the office, and turning it off at the end of each day, turn off window AC units at the end of each day. To date, Switch Your Thinking has helped the Knoxville campus avoid over $1 million in electricity costs, while preventing the environmental impacts associated with producing this power. In January 2011, the Chancellor’s Challenge encouraged the campus community to further reduce its energy use by 10 percent.


The website URL where information about the institution’s energy conservation and efficiency initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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