HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-26-ECC2-min
MEETING MINUTES
Board/Committee Name:
Energy Conservation Committee.
Date, Time and Location of Meeting
: 6:00 PM September 26, 2007 Cary Memorial Building
Members Present:
Christopher Haines, Chair
Steve Kropper, Secretary
Paul Chernick
Alessandro Alessandrini, Town Meeting member
Hank Manz, Selectman
Bll Hadley, DPW Chief
Tom Griffiths, School Committee
Pat Goddard
, Lexington Public Facilities Director
Keith Ohmart, Global Warming Action Coalition
Municipal Facilities staff:
Shawn Newell, Assistant Director Public Facilities
Representing Lexington Climate Action Plan Committee
Toby Sackton
Members Absent:
Ravi Sakhuja, School Department
Mayla Kabat Zinn, Lighting Guru
Roger Borghesani
Record of Votes.
Meeting opened
School Committee building temperature policy endorsed.
Meeting closed.
Opened meeting at 6:05 PM on Wednesday, September 25, 2007
Meeting agenda
1. Street Lamps Replacement - target not met.
Bill Hadley reported on street lamp replacement and progress on the DPW building.
Now using higher wattage (30w) bulbs for street lamps replacement project. Concern
expressed over weather durability. Goal is 800 bulbs replaced. 270 replaced thus far.
Original goal of replacing 800 bulbs by Q3 2007 has been missed. Will take six
additional months to meet goal. Now replacing bulbs every other week on Thursday
nights. Still acquiring and installing incandescent bulbs? Apparently. Need to talk to
Carl Valente about taking most incandescents out of our procurement process. If we
don’t buy them, we won’t install them. Enumeration of progress to date follows:
DPW has installed 270 compact fluorescents.
COUNT WATTAGE
56 - 23W
72 - 27W
62 - 28W
80 - 30W
2. Introducing new facilities Director
Introducing Pat Goddard, new Director of Public Facilities. Reports to Town Manager,
Carl Valente and Schools Superintendent, Paul Ash. Also working with PBC.
Needs help firming the operating parameters for school and municipal buildings, as well
as setting performance guidelines for new building designs. Policy decisions on air
conditioning can drive building construction AND operating costs. Citizen usage of
Town and school buildings (called “Programming”) can control heating and cooling
energy use. Director requested assistance in formalizing and adopting standards. There
are no cooling standards.
Committee offered consulting help for project review etc.
3. Major Energy Related projects
Pat Goddard, new Director of Public Facilities reported on major projects contemplated
or underway.
Top projects:
??
Clarke gas project status. Studying engineers recommendations for installation of
Gas fired heating system. Director reports that his review of the (funded)
proposal is not whether to proceed, but scrutiny of project details.
??
Shawn Newell reports that the HS gym and field house lighting project is almost
done.
??
Hastings Estabrook, Bridge, Bowman, Diamond, HS steam trap replacement
project will go to bid. $115 each.
??
Steam to hydronic conversion of elementary schools rejected because re-piping
would be required. Many boilers have not had chemical treatment of the water
and thus existing piping is thought not to be able to withstand load from hot water
system.
2. Reporting goals not met.
Building reporting goal partially accomplished. No single source of monthly usage and
cost data and comparison to previous period(s). Facilities department has two initiatives:
1) internal record keeping as well as 2) outsourcing of bill analysis (for invoice errors,
rate errors) to Energy Advocates which will look at our utility bills to understand if they
are correct are right, and taking advantage of the right rate schedules.
Pat Goddard was referred to ICF (vendor to DoE Energy Star program) for assistance in
building energy analysis and reporting. Pat Goddard was asked to report to the next
ECC Meeting on what tracking/reporting we have underway.
3. Cary Library
Energy issues associated with Library deferred.
4. New DPW building.
Bids came in at $18m for the new DPW building. $3m under initial estimate. No new
news relative to energy features.
.
5. Energy standard for new construction.
Discussed need for benchmarks for new construction that would be worked into PBC
charter, and into design specifications for new buildings.
Pat Goddard was briefed on
weaknesses of LEED as sufficient guidelines for new building design. Further review planned
for future meetings.
6. Lighting in Lexington Schools
Kropper reported on survey of lighting conditions at schools. Will circulate to members.
Discussion ensued on the importance of both substance and appearance of night time and
exterior lighting at schools. Messrs. Haines, Newell and Goddard discussed merits of
motion vs. timed lighting, the cost of vandalism and challenge of departmental staff
lighting overrides. Motion controls may be effective address security issues, better than
just timers, even when the timers work.
Climate Action Plan Committee asks help compiling energy use data
7.
Lexington Climate Action Plan Committee
Toby Sackton representing asked for
assistance and sharing of data on municipal building energy usage. Committee is
interested in knowing more about the work of the energy committee, and establishing a
liaison between the two committees. They are tasked with developing a greenhouse gas
emissions control plan for the town, covering municipal, school, commercial and
residential GHG emissions, as has been done by the almost 1000 other communities that
are members of Cities for Climate Protection (the group that Lexington joined this
summer),
The next meeting is scheduled for October10, 2007 at 6 PM.
The Committee adjourned at 7:15 PM.
Steve Kropper
Humble Secretary