For most commercial building owners and facility executives, the idea of making a capital investment for a new building, or building addition project, is in left field at the moment.  What does make sense is to fine tune the existing building or facility to trim utility bills and recognize savings in their operating budget. Lower energy bills can equate to big savings for commercial building owners.

The approach is straightforward.  Building owner’s can retain a consulting team to perform a comprehensive energy audit going through a commercial building room by room to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption.  The direction can be as simple as installing more energy efficient lighting for example, to upgrading out of date HVAC systems or adding better control systems.

An advanced course might be to integrate alternative energy systems such as a photovoltaic array (solar panels) or thermal heat transfer systems with the building.  The ROI on investment may take a little longer; however, the property and business can now be marketed as “Green” and environmentally friendly.  The financial return for the later is more challenging to identify directly but remains tangible all the same.

ArcWest Architects has teamed with engineering companies recently to assist in performing this sort of energy audit.  Though in most cases the upgrades and modifications required are pure engineering systems, there are architectural impacts that also may need to be addressed. ArcWest’s team will work with an owner to manage the coordination of the building upgrades to insure the implementation process goes smoothly.

For more information on how to approach an energy audit and reduce energy costs, contact us directly at 303.455.7741 or through our website.

Proposed Main Library Elevation on HWY 72

The project  will allow for the opportunity to propose a “green” building design practices that will incorporate sustainable features at the inception, such as:

• Sustainable Site Design
• Natural Daylighting
• Locally Sourced Materials
• Recycled Building Materials (High Recycle Content)
• Natural Ventilation and Cooling
• High Efficiency HVAC
• Solar Power
• Sustainable Irrigation Systems using “Gray” Water

Proposed Site and Building Plan

The Team at ArcWest Architects is very hopeful that our design will generate the level of interest that will allow for future discussions leading to our involvement with the project.  As the community of Nederland is  our “backyard”, we would be very excited at the opportunity to work with our mountain neighbor!

See excerpt below from the online article “Sustainable Solutions: The Impact of the Green Building Movement” by Wes McDaniel.

A more recent article “Green (Ware) House Effect“, by Rick Underwood, shares similar thoughts that affirms the thinking above there are simple considerations and “easy fixes” to reducing operating costs for an existing building or facility.  Further …. There are other great points in the article such as the strategic planning for the selected location of a warehouse if properly thought through will reduce costs and reduce the companies carbon footprint.  Being central in your supply chain, receiving and ditribution , makes sense and saves money.

- Robin Adams

“Seven Simple Ways to Reduce Facility Operating Costs

1. Replace fluorescent 40W-T12 lamps with 32W-T8 lamps and electronic ballasts.
   Not only are T8 lamps with electronic ballasts more energy-efficient than the standard T12 lamps and ballasts, they also provide better quality lighting due to a higher color rendering index.
2. Replace incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps.
   Compact fluorescent lamps use approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of the wattage of incandescent bulbs while maintaining the same lighting levels. Furthermore, compact fluorescents have a lifetime of up to 10,000 hours compared with 1,000 hours for most incandescent bulbs.
3. Replace incandescent or fluorescent exit sign lights with LEDs.
   The law requires that exit signs run continuously. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) operate on about 2W compared with 40W incandescent bulbs and 10-15W fluorescent lamps.
4. Use occupancy sensors in areas where lighting is typically left on when no one is there.
   Occupancy sensors ensure that the lights are turned off when an area is not occupied. The energy savings from occupancy sensors depends on the total hours that the lights are normally on and the percentage of hours that they can be turned off.
5. Install programmable thermostats.
   Programmable thermostats can be used to schedule the use of your heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment. They set up or set back temperatures when the facility is not being used. A reasonable and often-used estimate of savings is 1 percent savings for each degree of an eight-hour setback.
6. As motors burn out, replace them with energy-efficient ones.
   Standard motors use a lot of energy to operate and, by increasing efficiency just a few percentage points, you can save a significant amount of money in the course of a year, especially if the motor operates for long durations of time.
7. Instead of rewinding existing motors, replace them with energy-efficient ones.
   Rewinding motors can lower efficiency and increase operating costs. They also may not last as long as newer motors. Therefore, when the motor is less than 25 hp, it is generally better to replace the motor with a high-efficiency equivalent rather than rewind it.”

Lesson #1, there is significant money to be saved in reduced energy consumption with the use of flourescent lights in your Printing Operation Facility.

During their conference presentation, Bill Schreffler from Cox Enterprises and Mike Radcliff from Gannett provided concrete examples of system upgrades and operational adjustments which provide expedient ROI’s.  Probably the easiest savings is to replace high-bay Metal Halide with Fluorescent lighting reducing energy consumption by 50%.  ArcWest Architects and our engineers have been practicing this approach since 2006.

To learn more about the advantages of Fluorescent vs. Metal Halide lighting visit the Lighting-tax-deduction website.  (http://www.lightingtaxdeduction.org/technologies/high-bay.html)

Lesson #2, digital printing is the future, the question is when?  See our upcoming blog for these thoughts.

- Kevin Anderson