San Jose State is saving $300,000 a year on electricity costs after a lighting retrofit project reduced energy consumption at one of its buildings by 22 percent, according to a press release.
The school was one of several California universities recognized at the 2010 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference with Best Practices Awards for energy efficiency efforts and sustainable design practices on their campuses.
California State University (CSU) Chico was recognized in the Monitoring-Based Commissioning category for implementing several energy efficiency measures at Yolo Hall, including optimizing operation sequences and resetting temperature setpoints. The project amounts to operational cost savings of over $35,000 and energy savings of more than 80,000 kWh of electricity and 24,000 therms of natural gas annually.
CSU Sacramento's American River Courtyard won for Overall Sustainable Design. The American River Courtyard provides housing and associated services to over 600 students, and was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. The design of the American River Courtyard exceeds Title 24 energy provisions by 35 percent.
DeAnza College also won a Best Practice Award in the Overall Sustainable Design category for its Mediated Learning Center, which boasts an interoperable HVAC controls system platform. The Center is expected to consume 71 percent less energy than the national average for college/university buildings.
San Jose State University received a Best Practice Award in the Lighting Retrofit category for implementing lighting system upgrades and controls projects at its Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library as part of a SiteSMART commissioning services project.
The project included installing occupancy sensors on the library book stack lighting, retrofitting inefficient ceiling fixtures, and converting to spectrally enhanced (5000 K) lighting. The project is saving over $300,000 and more than 1,900,000 kWh annually.
All four schools use EnerNOC environmental management software and services.
Meanwhile, UC San Diego announced it is saving $900,000 a year after installing an energy dashboard to help the school reduce energy use. The dashboard reduces energy consumption by 19 million kilowatt hours.
UC Merced campus recently unveiled the university’s 1-megawatt (MW) solar power system.
