For Facilities Management at the University of St. Thomas, every project is viewed as an energy-saving opportunity.
With a change toward LED lighting in the near future of conserving energy on campus, other projects like having boilers heat North Campus and changing air valves in Owens Science Hall and the O’Shaughnessy Science Hall have proven successful, according to Facilities Management chief engineer David Clysdale.
“Anything we do, we look at it and go: ‘How can we get a rebate from Xcel Energy?’ They’ll help us do a lot of stuff, but also, how can we save energy by doing something differently?” Clysdale said. “Even replacing equipment: What’s the most energy efficient piece of equipment we can buy now?”
Clysdale recently replaced some old air valves in OWS and OSS, a vital piece of maintenance to keep those buildings running.
“The science building is our largest energy user…with the chemical hoods in the labs. That uses a lot of air, a lot of energy to keep all that going,” Clysdale said. “If the air entering the building comes in at 20-below, I make it 70 degrees, it goes through the hood and out through the roof in 20 minutes. I do that all day every day, all year long.”
Air valves throughout the building control the airflow, and by replacing the valves to reduce the amount of air filtered through the building, the university is able to save about $100,000 per year in energy costs.
“Now we’re reaping the benefit of that, but it did cost us quite a bit of money to do it…it was kind of a maintenance issue that we turned into an energy opportunity,” Clysdale said.
Another large energy saver on campus are the three boilers that heat all of north campus.
“Every building on the north campus is interconnected with that steam piping system,” Clysdale said. “The steam comes out and the water comes back and we reuse it. Very energy efficient.”
By reusing the water, Clysdale says that approximately 100 gallons of new water is added to the tanks daily.
“Which is really low considering each boiler holds 20,000 gallons of water and we’re only putting in 100 gallons a day of new water,” Clysdale added.
As for future energy-saving projects, Clysdale touched-on the transition to LED lighting, specifically with exterior fixtures.
“All of the pole lights around campus, all of the wall lights, anything up on a building that shines down into the quads. They’re concentrating on that next. Those are big users,” Clysdale said.
With LED lights already illuminating the Morrison and Flynn parking garage and Anderson parking facility, Clysdale believes that eventually the entire campus will be lit similarly.
“Everything we do, we’re looking at the conservation side of every project that we do,” Clysdale said. “We’ll extend whatever we can.”
Maya Shelton-Davies can be reached at shel1181@stthomas.edu