See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

Fire stations are excellent candidates for energy-efficiency initiatives because they are incredibly consistent…

“The next important step is an energy audit (also called an energy survey) that can identify key ways to improve building energy performance. ASHRAE has guidelines for three different levels of energy audit:”

“It is imperative, before any large capital improvement is made, that a true Lifecycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is performed. An LCCA compares the total cost to purchase, operate, maintain and dispose of competing options. A highly efficient system or appliance might have a higher “first cost” than others, but cost less to operate over its lifespan.”

See on firechief.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

A federal project to tie 50 buildings into a sensored, enterprise-level-managed platform gets underway.

“One of GSA’s more ambitious projects, launched this summer, plans to link 50 of the government’s highest energy-consuming buildings, comprising 31 million square feet, into an intelligent energy management network, from building sensors to enterprise-level management. IBM is the lead on the project, but it is working with various other consulting and technology providers, including SkyFoundry, Environmental Systems Inc. (ESI), Honeywell’s Tridium building controls platform and consultancy Intelligent Buildings.”

“The government can access cheap, long-term loans to pay for efficiency upgrades with a longer-term payback than private building owners can. The GSA is also pretty sure it’s going to be owning the same buildings it’s investing in a decade or two from now — something that’s not true in the commercial real estate world. Most efficiency experts say that commercial building owners and managers are demanding a 1- to 2-year payback on their investments, which has limited the market somewhat.”

See on www.greentechmedia.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

Manchester Memorial Hospital should receive one-time electric utility rebates totaling $592,451 and, in addition, is also awaiting gas incentives on the project that are being reviewed by the utility company…

See on www.elp.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

ESCANABA — Bay College has been working toward reducing energy costs and increasing sustainability for years, …

“The college has used recommendations from the 2001 audit to improve sustainability across campus in the past 11 years. Now, a recent 2012 audit has compared Bay College’s energy costs and consumption since 2001, and has determined a significant reduction in the college’s consumption, ranging anywhere from 17.6 to 59.1 percent less energy per square foot depending on the building.”

“We’ve gone from approximately 70 percent efficient boiler systems to 95 percent efficient boiler systems,”

“A substantial portion of it is probably credit to the fact that there’s time clocks and timing, and monitoring of equipment so we’re able to shut systems down when they’re not needed,”

See on www.dailypress.net

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Operations – Systems & Controls, Maintenance & Commissioning

The key to successfully implementing a comprehensive energy management program is systems integration — being able to simultaneously monitor heating and cooling systems, lighting, production machines and all other energy-consuming equipment, according to Control Engineering.

See on www.energymanagertoday.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering

Due to new timber engineering, designs for timber skyscrapers are coming from all corners of the globe.

“Herein lies a key catalyst for the timber trend’s underlying popularity. The process lends itself to creating highly green buildings when sustainable timber is used in the development process, as is the case in popular timber development concepts around the world.”

“Timber is ideal for green building – it has a lower overall environmental and carbon footprint than other materials and is renewable,” says BSLC executive director Cees de Jager. “Wood is well suited for a broad range of structural and aesthetic applications, is high performance, and, in many cases, is a more economical choice.”

See on designbuildsource.ca

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

The new polycarbonates for LED cooling elements … are an alternative to aluminum. … Unlike their aluminum counterparts, the injection-molded cooling elements require no post-treatment, enabling cost-effective production with low energy consumption.

“LED – the lighting technology of the future
LED lighting technology can look forward to strong growth thanks to its low power consumption, low maintenance requirement and long service life. It is already displacing traditional lighting systems in numerous applications. Current uses include street lighting, business, restaurant and residential luminaires, advertising, trade show stand construction and ambient lighting in automotive interiors.”

See on www.4-traders.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

The Tenacious Hunt for REBATES on LED Tube Lights…

“Independence LED did some research and found out that the state of Delaware created its own Sustainable Energy Utility to provide financial incentives to spur energy efficiency initiatives, as opposed to delegating the incentive program to private utilities. The program, named “Energize Delaware”, offered $150 per qualified fixture for parking garage LED lighting upgrades.”

See on www.greenandsave.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

We made a long-term assessment of the adoption of smart systems and services by consumers in Western Europe (Figure 1). In 10 years’ time we believe that approximately 30% of broadband households will have some type of smart system – a system with some level of intelligence that can be programmed to perform tasks according to a desired schedule, routine or in response to specific events.

See on hiddenwires.co.uk

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering

Of all the ways commercial real estate owners can spend capital, those of us in favor of environmental initiatives hope that cost-saving “energy retrofits” are somewhere near the top of that list.

“The “split-incentive problem” has gotten in the way for a long time. That’s where owners pay for capital upgrades to base building systems (such as HVAC and elevators) and tenants pay their prorated portion of the energy bill.”

“More than anything else, the solution hinges on the ability of engineers to predict the savings associated with an energy retrofit in a commercial building within +/-20%.”

See on newswatch.nationalgeographic.com