News Articles

It’s a New Year.  What resolutions have you made to make sure you excel in your field of endeavor?

There are many new standards and regulations coming out – with ever-increasing frequency. We, as engineers, need to be aware of new developments in renewable energy as well as new developments in our field to conserve energy, such as hybrid systems that use less energy than standard systems. One example: hybrid geothermal systems that cost less and therefore have a faster payback than a standard full geo system. There are so many new innovations to know about.

The USGBC Greenbuild Convention held in Phoenix in November had 28,000+ attendees.  The ASHRAE convention in Orlando the end of this month will have more than 30,000 attendees and over 1,000 exhibitors. These conventions are filled with excellent speakers telling what they’ve done and what they’ve learned relative to what we as engineers need to know. It’s further education being handed to us on a plate. Remember what they say about technical education today, “When you’re out of college only 2 short years, half of what you just learned is already obsolete”.

If you can’t get to the national conventions, there are many other opportunities, i.e., regional and local seminars. The Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD), NextEnergy, Automation Alley and the local chapters of ASHRAE and USGBC as well as many other organizations, have seminars on an almost monthly basis from which you can learn – and at which you can meet new people and do some networking. And in today’s tough economic times, networking has assumed a new importance.
Many times it’s not only what you know but also who you know – and how well you know them.

Change is happening faster than ever.  It’s a difficult pace to keep up. Take advantage of the learning experiences that are all around you – they’re local, they’re not expensive and they don’t take up a lot of your time.

There’s a Chinese saying, “If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up in the place we are headed.” Today, more than ever before, you have to get out of your “comfort zone”.
Make your plan and work your plan. Make this first year of the new decade a Good New Year – and a first-rate start for the next 10!

New York's Second-Tallest Skyscraper Aims to Be World's Greenest

By BILL BLAKEMORE and SHEPARD BOUCHER

March 7, 2007 -- Rising fast above Times Square, the new Bank of America Tower will soon be the second-tallest skyscraper in New York, just a few feet short of the Empire State Building.

It also has a shot at being the greenest skyscraper in the world. That's the hope of co-owner Douglas Durst and chief architect, Robert Fox, for their pride and joy.

Almost everything the workers are bolting, soldering, fitting, brushing, laying and pouring into place has been modified in ways the builders hope will earn the coveted "Platinum" rating (best possible) from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The various components include giant windows and glass inner walls that save on lighting bills, rooftop rainwater collectors (yes, even in Manhattan) that will cut down water bills, and even bike racks at entrances to encourage occupants not to drive to work.

"We get one point from the Green Building Council for bike racks," Fox said, adding almost proudly that the tower also has no parking garage.

If It's Not Green, It's Obsolete

"If you don't build green, you're building obsolete," Durst said during a tour up through the noise and bustle of construction -- the tower now shoots up past its 28th floor.

Durst estimates that all the environmental factors they're including account for 2 percent to 3 percent of the total $1.2 billion cost of building the tower. He believes the green additions will pay for themselves within two years to four years through saved energy expenses.

Durst says his family company, the Durst Organization, which has been in the Manhattan real estate business since 1915, will have a far superior property to pass on to his descendants.

Co-owner Bank of America will be the building's principal tenant, but The Durst Organization will manage a large percentage of the building's commercial real estate. In addition to saving money through more efficient utilities, the building is being built to environmental codes Durst believes will be in place in future years, eliminating the need for costly modifications.

"It all makes complete financial sense," he said as he explained how concentrating on efficiency saved on utility bills while also being good for the planet.

Water the (Very) Old-Fashioned Way

The tower has special plumbing designed to combine roof-captured rainwater with the "greywater" from the building's washroom sinks, and then with the condensation from the tower's air conditioning and from the steam purchased from the utility company ConEdison.

The resulting effluent will be used to flush the toilets and run evaporation panels that help cool the building, greatly cutting the building's water intake.

"The tower sits on a footprint of two square acres," said Fox, the architect, "and New York gets about four feet of rain a year. Imagine two square acres covered with four feet of water. We'll collect all of that."

The Durst family hopes the tower's supergreen design will serve as a role model for builders everywhere.

"We're learning what 'a green building' means," he said, adding that they'd spent more time and money than usual on the design phase, but insisting it would soon pay off.

Electricity Burning Up Far Fewer Dollars

Bank of America is also hopeful about the tower's environmental efficiency.

"'I want a building that will attract and retain the best associates!' That's what Bank of America Chairman Ken Lewis told us when he asked us to design the tower," Fox said. "And we worked hard to design a building like that."

On the still-windowless edge of the 25th floor, the recently poured concrete floor has just hardened.

"We have high ceilings -- 9 feet, 6 inches -- and we'll have floor-to-ceiling windows. Everyone gets light."

The tower also will have glass inner walls, so that even people stationed near the core of the building will be able to look outside from their desks and check the weather. The constant sunlight will even help reduce heating bills.

Most skyscrapers have eight-foot ceilings -- and solid inner walls.

A 'Biophilia' Building

"There's a word that explains what we're doing: 'biophilia,'" Fox said.

The term "biophilia" was coined by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson to label an intense interest in and need for nature. Wilson says that humans have biophilia built into their DNA and that contact with nature is necessary for a general sense of well-being.

"People working at their desks will want to look outside, want to know is it raining out, or snowing … or sunny," Fox said of the building, which is scheduled to open in 2008.

The view isn't bad either: From one angle, inhabitants will look out past the Empire State Building, across the East River toward the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Atlantic Ocean. Another side offers views south across Manhattan rooftops and the mouth of the Hudson River toward the Statue of Liberty.

Fox and Durst are considering a "daylight dimming system" that would have light meters for each room that turn up ceiling lights only as much as needed.

They hope that such day-bright office surroundings and anti-claustrophobic high ceilings will help retain employees as the Bank of American chairman asked.

"There are studies that show that employees are 10 [percent] to 15 percent more productive if their surroundings are healthy and pleasant," Durst said.

Refreshing Even 'Out of Doors'

And the benefits won't be limited to the building's occupants.

"We're actually acting as a giant air filter for New York City," said a subtly smiling Durst, his enthusiasm for the project shining through his understated soft-spoken manner.

"We will take in four times as much air as New York codes require, and the air we expel will be much cleaner than what we take in," he said.

The greater volumes of air make it possible to flush more VOCs (volatile organic compounds) out of the air, diminishing the likelihood of "sick building syndrome" sometimes blamed on imperfect air filtration systems.

He says that people working in the Bank of America Tower will breathe air cleaned of 95 percent of its particulate matter instead of the 35 percent typical in office buildings.

Air Tricks From Ancient Egypt

"The air ducts will be under the floor," Fox said. "Each office, each room, will have a thermostat to regulate however much air the occupant wants."

This will bring big power savings because air rising from the floor needs to be cooled down only to 65 degrees, rather than the 55 degrees needed for air coming from ducts in the ceiling where it has to get past the room's rising warm air and hot ceiling lights.

"Floor duct air systems were used by the ancient Romans," Fox said, "and they've been using them for 20 years in Europe. It's only just now starting to appear in the U.S."

The tower has three state-of-the-art natural gas fuel cells to create its own electricity, reducing the amount the owners have to buy.

Natural gas emits just half the greenhouse gases per BTU emitted from burning coal. The largest portion of America's electricity is by burning coal.

Between 7 percent and 8 percent of energy is lost in getting it from external power plants to customers, says Durst, so the less power plant electricity a building has to buy, the less greenhouse gas emissions it is probably supporting.

Concrete Made Stronger by Blast Furnace Trash

Fox and Durst say they even found a new way to make the building's concrete 10 percent stronger.

They're making the building's concrete with a 45 percent admixture of blast furnace slag: a glassy material left over after the smelting of ore.

Normally, slag piles up as industrial trash.

When they found they could use slag as a substitute for nearly half of the building's concrete, Fox explains, they knew they had discovered yet another green advantage in the fight against global warming:

"Cement manufacturing produces massive greenhouse gas emissions. Something like 8 percent of global CO2 emissions come from cement factories," he said.

Fox and Durst know that this one building cannot by itself make any big difference, but they hope it can help lead the way, inspiring other builders.

Tower's Carbon Footprint? Not a Simple Question

The two are hopeful that when the tower opens for business in 2008 it will be "carbon neutral" -- the gold standard that must be met, say scientists, for any building that wants to be part of solution for global warming,

"It's not a simple calculation," Durst said. "We can't be sure yet that we're going to be completely carbon neutral, but we're working on it."

Pakistan Daily Times

A major new project is under way in Paris to provide ecologically clean heating for an entire district by extracting piping hot water from nearly two kilometres (1.2 miles) under the earth.

In a revival of the French capital’s geothermal potential, drilling has just begun in the north of the city on a desolate building site sandwiched between the traffic-clogged inner ring road and the Saint-Denis canal.

“In Paris we’re trying to adopt a strategy in which France is largely behind other European countries, because we’ve under-invested in renewable energies,” said Denis Baupin, a Paris deputy mayor. At the construction site, a 36-metre (120-foot) yellow mast rises above a dense cluster of machinery that is usually used to drill for oil. Here the drilling is not for black gold but for hot water.

“The lower you go, the hotter the water,” said Michel Galas of CPCU, the urban heating company doing the work, as he stood next to a shaft that when finished will delve 1.7 kilometres into the earth.

At that depth lies a geological stratum called the Dogger from which water, heated naturally to 57 degrees Celsius (135 Fahrenheit), will be sucked up to the surface, where it will be used to heat another stock of water.

This will be pumped to apartment blocks to heat radiators and provide hot water.

“It’s energy that is 100 percent renewable,” said Galas.

The scheme will heat around 12,000 apartments and other buildings due to be built by 2011 in a new residential area in the city’s 19th district. The project will cost 31 million euros (40 million dollars), five million euros of which will come from the state environment agency and the regional council.

The use of this natural energy source will prevent 14,000 tonnes a year of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide being pumped into the capital’s already polluted air.

That is roughly the same amount of CO2 that an average car would belch out if taken on a 470,000-kilometre trip, which is longer than the distance from the Earth to the moon. It will also provide 54 percent of the new area’s energy needs.

Galas said there were around three dozen sites using geothermal energy in the greater Paris region, nearly all dating from the 1970s and 80s.

Demand-response programs save you energy, earn you money, and help you lessen your buildings' impact on the environment

By Jana J. Madsen

When you're talking about demand-response (DR) programs, a penny saved really is a penny earned. Not only do you have smaller utility bills when you save energy, but if you're enrolled in a DR program, you actually earn money for curtailing load, too.

These programs are offered by utility companies, third-party aggregators that contract with utilities, and, in an unregulated energy market, Independent System Operators (ISOs). Participation is voluntary. Once enrolled in a DR program, you're required to curtail the energy load in your facility(s) when contacted by the program administrator, and you're compensated accordingly.

It's important to recognize the distinction between energy efficiency and DR. Installing energy-efficient HVAC equipment permanently reduces load; DR programs are temporary fixes, with a sudden reduction of energy usage for a defined duration.

DR programs are not new or uncommon. Contact your utility or the ISO in your state to inquire about the availability of such programs, and the eligibility of your building(s). In some situations, enrolling in a program offered by a regional or national aggregator might be your best - or only - option. These third parties sign up a number of companies/institutions and combine the load shedding, which is offered to the utility company.

Operational Changes to Curtail Load

1. Pre-cool the building during hot summer days.
2. Reduce the speed of variable speed drives.
3. Reset CO2 and temperature setpoints.
4. Dim lights.
5. Shut off banks of interior lights along the building perimeter on sunny days.
6. Shut off nonessential exhaust fans.
7. Lower the temperature of domestic hot water.

Helpful Advice About Demand Response

• Start slow and grow. Don't overestimate the amount of load you think you can curtail.
• Test a variety of solutions during off-peak hours to get a more realistic picture of how much load can be shed.
• Gather historical data. A robust metering system will allow you to track the real-time energy consumption of your buildings, which is a necessity when curtailing load.
• Get building occupants involved and promote program involvement and awareness.
• Enroll in a demand-response program at the time of year when it's most financially advantageous.

The Benefits of Enrollment

Because DR programs save energy, they relieve strain on the power grid and the need to build more fossil-fuel-burning plants. "Power plants, no matter how efficient they are, still have to burn natural resources," says Peter Chan, supervisor, demand response operations, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Co., San Francisco. Fewer carbon emissions are released, and electrical interruptions can be avoided.

These benefits are significant, but very seldom are they the reasons that facilities professionals take an interest in DR. For building owners and engineers, participation is a chance to lessen their facilities' impact on the environment, and a chance to transform building operations from a cost to a revenue stream. "Demand-response events will essentially coincide with high energy prices; so, by participating in DR [programs], contributors are, in fact, hedging their energy," says John Marhong, director, facility services, at Canadian horseracing entertainment company Woodbine Entertainment Group, Rexdale, ON.

There are three ways participants are rewarded for curtailing load:

1. The utility issues a credit on the ratepayer's bill on a monthly basis and/or following each event.
2. A check is issued from the aggregator to the participant following an event, based on the terms of the DR contract.
3. The utility offers reduced kilowatt-hour (kWh) rates for overall power.

When investigating DR programs, it's important to understand when and how you'll be compensated for participation. The financial justification for enrolling can be very attractive. For example, the University of Mississippi is rewarded by the Tennessee Valley Authority with reduced kWh rates that add up to $1 million in annual savings. Remember, though, not every utility or ISO offers reduced rates as an incentive to participate in a DR program. It's important to find out how the program is structured before signing a contract.

Different Types of Programs

There are two situations that trigger a DR event: when demand is high, and when prices are high. DR programs requiring load curtailment when the demand is so high that electricity supply is marginal are often called reliability programs. "Basically, we provide incentives for customers to curtail loads so we have enough [energy] to go around for everybody in the system," says Chan. By asking DR participants to curtail load when supply is low, utilities can ensure reliable delivery of power to all ratepayers, and don't have to buy power elsewhere.

The other program is called a pricing program. Participants enrolled in this type of program will be notified about load curtailment when the market price for energy is very steep. Enrollment in these kinds of DR programs can help facilities professionals proactively address pricing uncertainty. "We have hourly pricing in some states that is day-ahead; so, a day ahead, we'll give the price by hour, and the customer can set his/her operations accordingly," explains Ted Schultz, vice president of energy efficiency at Charlotte, NC-based Duke Energy.

With pricing programs called demand bidding, the program administrator gives you advance notice of the event, asks you to estimate the amount you can shed during a specific time, and pays you a certain rate for the load reduction. Some demand-bidding programs even enable facilities professionals to name their price for the energy they curtail. When investigating these types of programs, find out who's naming the price - you or the program administrator.

Questions to Ask Before You Enroll

When you enroll in a DR program, you sign a contract. But, before you put pen to paper, there are a number of questions you need answered to make an educated decision about the program that best suits your facility's capabilities and goals.

How will I be notified, and how far in advance will I be contacted? The terms of the contract will dictate how much advance notice you can expect. It could be 30 minutes, or it could be 24 hours. The program administrator will offer you a menu of options when it comes to notification methods: landline, fax, e-mail, text messaging, or cell phone. In addition to selecting the notification method, you can also choose who is (and how many people are) notified. As you investigate the load-curtailment strategy that's most practical, think about the time you'll need to set those actions in motion. Creighton University, Omaha, NE, receives a 3- or 4-hour notice from the Omaha Public Power District. In the time between when the call is received and curtailment begins, the school's facilities department sends e-mail and voicemail messages to faculty and staff to enlist their involvement. "The building engineers are also notified by two-way walkie-talkie, telephone, and through the Internet," says George Tangeman, energy manager, Creighton University. When curtailment requires the actions of numerous people in multiple facilities, like at Creighton, 30 minutes simply won't suffice.

How long will I have to shed load? "If, three or four times in one week, your utility is calling and [asking] you to drop load, that's tough," says Ed Saribay, supervisor, demand response operations, PG&E. Think about the number of days in a row you're willing to curtail load. If load shedding for too many consecutive days is a concern, ask the program administrator if you can say no to back-to-back requests or lengthy durations.

How frequently will I be contacted/required to curtail load? While it's expected that participants be contacted during periods of peak demand (often in the summer, when temperatures are high) or just before new rates take effect, no one would sign up for a DR program if he/she were called every week. Thankfully, you're not called every week. Ask the program administrator how often you can expect to be contacted.

What determines the amount I earn? You should know what variables impact the amount of your incentive for any program. For example, are you paid per kWh based on the amount of energy curtailed; if so, what determines this rate? Some programs give you a more significant incentive if you agree to shed load with less advance notice, so ask. Also, investigate whether you're paid per event, or if there's a monthly incentive for simply enrolling. According to Duke Energy's Schultz: "We'll pay them for the right to curtail load, and when they do, they get a premium.

"If I don't shed load, what are the penalties? Irrespective of the type of program in which you enroll, you should always ask whether you'll be issued a penalty fee for not curtailing load when contacted. In other words, after your voluntary enrollment in a DR program, is curtailment required, or can you elect to "pass" when notified? "We have programs where we've paid [the ratepayer] to be a resource; so, when we call, we're planning on [the load curtailment] being there. We also have programs that are voluntary," says Schultz. If the program requires mandatory load shed and participants don't take action, penalties can be steep. "[Participants] would pay market price plus 15 percent, typically," Schultz says.

What is the length of the contract? Most contracts are for 12 months, but longer terms, even 3- to 5-year contracts, are not unheard of.

How to Shed Load

If you're lucky enough to have seasoned building engineers, determining where to curtail load starts with asking them for their suggestions. When Chicago-based U.S. Equities Asset Management LLC enrolled in a DR program as part of its green initiatives at Sears Tower, it called on in-house expertise to identify load-shedding opportunities. "We're really lucky to have great engineers, some of whom have been with the building since it was built," says Randy Stancik, vice president, U.S. Equities Asset Management.

If you're not quite so fortunate, or you want some outside help, talk to your program administrator. Many can conduct a comprehensive energy audit to help you identify where and how to curtail load. "During the audit, we will look at a customer's operations behavior and his/her [facility's] energy consumption," says Chan. "From this information, our energy auditor will recommend what the building needs to do in order to permanently reduce load under the energy-conservation program, and what other things the building can do to curtail if they sign up for a demand-response program."

All load-curtailment actions must cut energy without crippling business continuity and diminishing the comfort and productivity of building occupants. There are two strategies that, applied together or separately, can be used to temporarily reduce load: using on-site power generation, and/or operating building systems and equipment in such a way that they use less energy.

While using back-up generators is not considered the most respected way to curtail load, it allows you to continue operations during a DR event as if nothing were happening. For a hospital, where patients would suffer if temperature setpoints were raised in the summer, this is a practical approach to reducing the amount of energy the facility draws from the power grid. "If you have alternative sources of generation, then that gives you the ability to maintain your productivity during an event," explains Schultz. At the University of Mississippi, 10 diesel generators can crank out a maximum generation capacity of 20 megawatts - enough to power the whole campus for 3 to 4 days. If you choose to use this strategy, though, don't rule out reducing load as well. Marriott Intl. combines on-site generation and operational changes to shed 2,400 kW during periods of peak demand at seven of its California hotels.

"Generators are an expensive way of making electricity," says Lennis Pederson, associate vice president for administration, Creighton University, about why the school opted for "pure" curtailment. Like many organizations enrolled in a DR program, the university relies on its building-automation system (BAS) to help cut energy. While it's not a necessity, a BAS can mean the difference between having facilities professionals scour the building, flipping lights off manually, and typing in a few keystrokes in a network operating center to automate dimming.

Not surprisingly, HVAC and lighting systems are the most frequent areas targeted for load shedding. Many businesses - from grocery-store chain Albertsons to toy-store icon FAO Schwarz - are shutting down or dimming lights as part of their load-curtailment strategies. And, at Sears Tower, strategies like shutting off nonessential exhaust fans and lowering the temperature of domestic hot water are being applied. The cumulative impact of these actions results in fewer kilowatts, a smaller environmental impact, and a better bottom line. The utility company wins, the environment benefits, and you can finally turn your energy expense into an asset.

Jana J. Madsen (jana.madsen@buildings.com) is editor at Buildings magazine.