Southern Illinois University Physical Plant
Carbondale, Illinois
Intern: Alex Singleton
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Founded in 1969 as the state's second teacher college, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) now has 11 colleges and schools. The university is also home to over 20,000 students and 5,400 faculty members. SIUC's physical plant provides heating, cooling and some electricity for the campus. This includes a power plant that consumes nearly 50,000 tons of coal a year.
The intern was tasked with aiding the physical plant engineers in researching a plan to reduce the energy consumption in one of the most energy intensive buildings on the campus.
Results:
The project involved utilizing a computer software program to model and analyze which systems consumed the most energy in a large laboratory building. The HVAC system was selected and the intern proposed several updates to the energy monitoring and controls to optimize efficiency and reduce costs. The intern simulated the control system updates using spreadsheet calculations and concluded that the updates could save over $244,500 annually. This savings represents a 20,400 MMBTU reduction in energy use annually. The savings and energy conserved account for a 35% and 48% improvement respectively, when compared to past usage. This analysis can also be used as collateral for future improvements to the HVAC systems in other buildings.
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