ENERGY Newsletter
Minimal Investment, Major Energy Savings
(Energy News - July 2010)
Energy Audit Launches Conservation Effort At The Village Of Suamico
Saving energy doesn't have to cost a bundle. It just takes a good plan and a committed team. These are the ingredients you will find at the Village of Suamico in northern Brown County.
"We knew our energy costs were getting out of control — but we also knew we could make changes to help manage that expense," said Karen Matze, who recently retired from her position as Village Administrator. "We needed a plan — a guidebook for moving forward."
An energy audit from Focus on Energy last fall filled that need.
"This was the pivotal step that put the wheels in motion," Matze said. "It helped us understand how and where we were using energy and spelled out what we could do to conserve and cut costs."
The Village of Suamico focused on its six main buildings: two park shelters, two fire stations, the Village Hall and the Public Works administrative offices.
"The audit identified a list of strategies we could implement to start saving energy right away," said Randy Loberger, Director of Public Works and Engineering Services at the Village of Suamico.
"The great news for our bottom line was that many of them were simple, low-cost solutions or no-cost behavioral changes."
The Village tackled many projects, including:
- Taking advantage of setback thermostats — changing batteries and programming existing units. This included adjusting the occupied/unoccupied settings so buildings would heat up or cool down appropriately before employees arrived in the morning and shut off on schedule for an efficient run cycle.
- Banning space heaters and instead turning up building thermostats by a couple of degrees in winter.
- Replacing standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
- Tuning dampers to better balance airflow.
- Adjusting the photo eye on an outside entrance light to keep it from operating during the day.
- Installing overhead door seals.
- Modifying switches on restroom fans so they run only when the lights are turned on instead of operating around the clock.
"The goal was to work together and economize all of our buildings — to be sure we were properly using the energy-saving devices we already had in place and making minor modifications to ramp up conservation," Loberger said.
As the Village has taken on improvements identified in the audit, staff has seen a substantial drop in natural gas and electric use.
For example, at Village Hall, the overall energy use in December 2009 decreased substantially from December 2008. Specifically, natural gas use dropped 30 percent per day and electric use dropped 26 percent per day.
"For making some simple changes, we are seeing a real benefit on our energy bills," Matze said.
Municipal Well Improvement
Another project the Village completed in recent years was adding variable frequency drives (VFD) to two municipal wells. One of the wells had been privately owned. It had a greater capacity and was pumping too much for the Village's needs.
"By adding the VFD, we went from pumping 1,100 gallons per minute to 625 gallons per minute," Loberger said. "This pace better meets our needs and greatly reduces our electric use for that pump."
The Village also installed a VFD on another well. This installation was not intended to alter well output but rather to reduce start up impacts. Though difficult to measure, the savings in future repair costs and greater life expectancy for the entire water system can be substantial. Sue Perz, account executive, and other staff from WPS helped the Village identify the potential savings of these VFD projects and apply for Focus on Energy incentives.
The Village invested about $23,000 and incentives from Focus on Energy covered about $15,000. The balance of the investment will be recovered in energy savings in less than three years. At that time, the Village expects annual electric savings of about $3,000.
For More Information
If you are interested in conserving energy at your company, contact your WPS account executive or the Business Solutions Center at 877-444-0888.