JUL 01

The University of Illinois, Urbana has not only met its goal of reducing energy consumption by 10 percent, but has saved a whopping $5 million as a result.  The college started the project to cut its energy use only 10 months ago, but they had given themselves a year to accomplish their goal.

The reduction in energy use was achieved by updating old lighting fixtures and ballasts in the buildings that used the most electricity.  The school identified 44 buildings to update and have already made the changes in 24 of them.  The remaining buildings will be updated in the second phase through the end of the year.

Another major factor in the energy savings was the installation of programmable controls and occupancy sensors in several buildings.  The controls have not only led to a 27% energy savings in each building that they were installed, but the Faciliites and Services Department has reported fewer complaints involving the heating, cooling and lighting systems.

The project was funded mainly by grants and rebates and cost about $5 million so far, so the updates have given the school an almost immediate return on investment.  The school estimates that the upgrades will amount to energy bill savings of $1 million a year and as they continue to increase energy efficiency in more buildings, they expect to see that number rise.

via Treehugger

Comments (4)

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Long Island Colleges' Programs
written by Kyriaki Venetis, July 02, 2009

Very cool! In related news, Farmingdale State College will be working with the Long Island Power Authority to expand the college’s solar center to become a renewable and sustainable resource center for the demonstration of customer-owned renewable resources such as wind and solar.
The college will also utilize the renewable energy center to expand certificate training programs for renewable resources for green technology entrepreneurs and industry employees.
Farmingdale and Stony Brook University will also the LIPA to create Long Island’s first integrated “Smart Energy Corridor.”

The whole story that I wrote can be read at: http://www.greenvitals.net/pow...pgrad.html

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correction
written by EV, July 02, 2009

The University of Illinois, Urbana has not only met its goal of reducing energy consumption by 10 percent, but has saved a whopping $5 million as a result.

They EXPECT to save %5 million. They have not saved it yet.

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...
written by Fred, July 02, 2009

This should be implemented in all schools no matter the cost it'll pay back for itself.

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Wasting it already
written by c, July 05, 2009

Don't worry. They will blow it all in power/cooling for the ill fated http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/BlueWaters/ project. They are greenwashing it already http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/N...elchi.html , but it can't dodge the fact that it is a thinly veiled bailout for IBM, using clunky Power7 CPUs and toasting them at 4ghz.

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