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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-05-10-ECC2-min MEETING MINUTES Board/Committee Name: Energy Conservation Committee. Date, Time and Location of Meeting : 6:00 PM May 10, 2006 Town Hall Room G-15 Members Present: Christopher Haines Committee Chair, architect. Energy consultant. Myla Kabat-Zinn Experience with energy efficient street lights. Steve Kropper Ex-Energy Czar, Boston Dept. Health & Hospitals, TM member Bill Hadley Director of Public Works Paul Chernick Energy consulting firm in Arlington, Town Meeting member. Alessandro Alessandrini Town Meeting member Hank Manz Selectman Ravi Sakhuja School Committee member & Town Meeting member William Hartigan Facilities Director, Public School Department Keith Ohmart Global Warming Action Coalition Greg Zurlo Appointed as Planning Board liaison, Town Meeting Member Visitors attending : Roger Borghesani Capital Expenditures committee member. Reports NSTAR rebates exhausted. Eph Weiss Town Meeting member. Strong interest in EC committee success Marge Daggett Lexington’s Representative to Minuteman School Board Bruce Bryan Facilities Director, Minuteman Tech Record of Votes. Meeting opened. Meeting adjourned Information Distributed: Steve Kropper distributed meeting agenda Bill Hadley distributed utility usage data for 2004, 2005 and 2006 (to date) Christopher Haines provided usage reports prepared under his direction Discussion yielded much light, little friction, thus no heat. Headlines: ?? 1932 Town report “If continue to defer maintenance, eventually programs & students will suffer.” ?? TM report: Superintendent Ash promises maintenance budget will be spent for maintenance. ?? Bill Hartigan reported on idea for gas fired partial retrofit of roof cooling/heating units at Clarke. may be economical alternative to retrofitting entire building. ?? Bill Hartigan is integrating energy issues into RFP such as Diamond and LHS roof replacement. ?? Stand for Children teams are monitoring schools’ indoor air quality. Advocating better maintenance. ?? Report by Minuteman Tech (30 years old, 330k SF) facilities Director Bruce Bryan detailed comprehensive energy management effort. Students in trades programs key to execution. ?? Bill Hadley generated energy budget data for '05 05 and 06 (to date) reports on sample Town buildings. ?? ICLEI reporting postponed. May require more Committee labor than we can spare. ICLEI environmental goals are best served if we focus on our local initiatives. Think ICLEI, act local! ?? Planning Board member as liaison to Committee. Committee welcomed Greg Zurlo,Further germane to PB. discussion is required on whether Committee's municipal building work is ?? 47% of Clarke usage is peak Christopher Haines reports that when rates are highest. Half of charges cover generating capacity, not usage Peaks hurt! Usage should drop when Clarke empties. $28k/month average usage $74k for latest month usage recently. Minutemen Tech report highlights importance of lighting energy considerations, prompted ?? Myla’s request for lighting to be on next meetings agenda. Detailed notes follow at end of these minutes. Meeting concluded at 7:45 PM Next monthly meetings : Wednesday, June 14, 2006, Room 111 Wednesday, July 12, 2006, Room G-15 Wednesday, August 9, 2006, Room G-15 All meetings are scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Room 111 and Room G-15 are located in Town Hall, 1625 Mass. Avenue. Recorder Name: Steve Kropper, Secretary Stand reps here. In coordination with LPS and Bill Hartigan, Stand has trained teams (nurse, volunteer parents, head custodian, teachers, principals) doing walk throughs in schools under EPA’s no cost “Tools for Schools” program. Many simple, low cost opportunities to improve. LPS need manpower and money. Stand is highlighting deferred maintenance, trying to encourage citizen support for school/municipal facilities upkeep Focus is on indoor air quality. Completed checklist in nine schools; trying to understand HVAC basics. Willing to give conservation more emphasis. Much water waste, much leaks. Causes mold (indoor air quality problem). Thermostat and pump/air handler timers need repairs Reports will be shared with public. Main contact: Susan Rubenstein sdr59@comcast.net (Secretary’s note: coordination with Stand can prevent energy conservation Vs. indoor air conflict). Minuteman Tech Report by Minuteman Tech (30 year old, 330k SF) facilities Director Bruce Bryan detailed sophisticated and comprehensive energy management effort. Students in trades programs key to program execution. Maintenance staff too. LIGHTING Broad ballast replacement with electronic. Seeking grant for more relamp, reballast. Lighting hours shortened. Off at 7 PM not 8 PM. Change all exit signs to LCD. Cafeteria /gym/pool rd lights off when not in use. 160 bulbs off on third floor during 3 shift. SPACE HEAT Keyspan funded $350k pipe across Rt. 128, thus converted to gas with new boilers (from what?) Previous in last 12 years (huh?). Dropped heating season air temp 72o to 67o. Boilers off over weekend. Saving 100 hours of usage per month. Installing CO2 sensors to drive ventilation. Trying to cut usage of 18 overhead doors. Scheduling saves too: cut weekend gym/pool used to 12 hours. Using divider in gym - two teams practice cuts needed gym hours. POWER Changed compresers, computerized air instead of water. 140k state grant change all rooftop air handle to high efficiency with ½ HP. Elevator electric use high. Healthy staff discouraged from using. Vending machine controls WATER Replaced 58 toilets/urinals (1.5 watt energy savers (toilets use electricity, or is that gallons?). Water warden faucets. Water billed doubled in last year (check this). Up $56K in six months (monthly?) Sewer 12% UP . Recent NSTAR report advises waste heat recovery, variable air motors/controls, new energy management system, passive solar for domestic hot water. (Secretary note: perhaps we should cut LHS AP courses and get LHS students focused on thermostat replacement!) Keith Ohmart, Committee member, Global Warming Action Coalition, ICLEI advocate. Keith briefed Committee in previous meetings on how ICLEI program might help process Town energy consumption/budget data into usable form. Recent scrutiny raised concern that participating might require more Committee labor than we can spare. ICLEI environmental goals and Committee cost savings goals may be best served by focus on local initiatives at this time…..Think ICLEI, act local! Bill Hartigan and Steve Kropper Town Meeting approved capital spending for energy (see Cap. Ex committee report to TM) Lexington High School a) Steam to hydronic conversion. 50% of LHS heat is steam. Useful life over. $1.5m min to replacement. No longer a cost issue, now a repair problem. Gratitude to Ravi, uncovered rebate on DDC. DCC now not being used well, staff too thin. On line working, but not managed. b) Gym roof (nominally 2” of isocyanurate insulation but 6” added where possible) Did infrared scan to locate where insulation deficient, saturated with water. Overlay with new rubber roof. Mechanical eqpt penetrations impede. Also edge of roof. No roofing at Clarke at this time. Diamond controls is an upcoming RFP. Just signed BMJN Harris: Diamond, lighting occupancy sensors, ballasts, all of building. Estimate $44k invest with >4 year payback. Partial automation systems, stand alone, not tied in. Will be retrofitting, new front end. Controls not working now. Needs hand held unit to reset controls. Automation will connect to IP address so can log in to manage. Now stand alone sensors. Hank Manz reported on the Prop 2 ½ override and energy In 1932 town opened Adams school. Superintendent “If continue to defer maintenance, eventually programs and students will suffer. Super. Ash promises maintenance will be spent for maintenance. FTE and maintenance are at risk. Need to communicate this to the town. Kropper will draft Minuteman article from Committee vantage. Hadley of DPW report on department’s energy efforts Underfunded for any years. $50k last year. $50k in budget PLUS $50k in override. Installed dual fuel boiler in town hall, lighting retrofit. Storm window replacement, caulking in town hall. Looking at lighting controls - motion detectors. NSTAR willing to do audit of the building. Has contract with SolarTech. Ends this summer. Now emergencies only, would like to broaden contract. Submitted ‘05 vs ‘04 usage data, will be distributed via Kropper. Hartigan on Override and operations: 1) Service response manager schedules building use ~$50k 2) Tech service mgr. $65k 3) One floater, two custodians at LHS. Now custodial coverage is overtime, not salaried staff. Will save contractor’s service call ($80-100/hour) as well as energy. Wants technicians in department. TM OK ~$553k for preventive maintenance on 600k sf of space. Modest effort. Industry standard: 1-2% of replacement $/SF. Should be $2m/year. Today $700k, $1.3 m too short. Haines/Hartigan Christopher Haines finds “Clark is a building gone mad. Spring and night never come to Clarke. Controls not working. Now needs usage data for 15 min intervals, Hartigan offers help extracting data from NSTAR web site. 47% of usage is peak (7 am to 7 PM) when rates are highest. Half of charges cover generating capacity, not usage “Load factor” is average use divided by peak usage. Peaks hurt! Usage should go down when building is empty. Can cut peaks by staging when power turned on. Hartigan reports Clarke opens 5-5:30 AM. Closes 11 PM. Sunday 4-5 hours open on Sunday. Bruce Bryan injects “Minuteman has peak 10-10:30 AM from kitchen. Changed operations to spread out $28k/month average usage $74k for latest month usage recently. Ratchet charges - means that once usage high. 250 KWH to 400 KWH. Chernick offers tutorial on electric tariffs. Old compressors and air handlers drive power factor. 62 of 74 air cooled condensers are aged, some replaced annually. NSTAR working on a 250k control retrofit at Clarke. Just finishing commissioning new system. Used same contractors as NSTAR to do some condenser replacement. New idea , talking about gas line coming into the building. 60% of mech equipment is roof accessible. 40% not. Talking with replace thirty heat pumps on roof fire with gas. Remove resistance heating on lower levels. Looking at unit ventilators-vertical gas ones. Can Keyspan pull pipe instead of fepairing road. What redress.