Energy Use

written by: Mimi Casteel, Larry Connelley, Amanda Medori, James Walker, and Stacy Wallick

Natural Gas

Natural gas is used on campus for heating buildings and water. The highest usage occurs in the winter time when the heaters are running. While gas prices have fluctuated, the schools consumption has gone up considerably. Between 1991-1992 and 1995-1996 the consumption went up 63% with an increase in spending of $380,632. Possible explanations for the increased gas usage could be colder winters that work the heating system longer, declining productivity of the heating units, and aging pipelines. Because gas usage is growing so quickly replacement of old heating systems with newer more efficient systems would be a valuable conservation effort. Presently, Tulane has not conducted any plans to conserve natural gas on campus.

Electricity

Electricity is the main energy usage at Tulane. The cost of running a school the size of Tulane with electricity is tremendous. Between 1991-1992 and 1995-1996 the consumption went up 18% and the cost was $355,189 greater. The bulk of electricity is spent on air conditioning in the summer time. In the last few year the cost of electricity has generally gone down. Tulane has been in negotiations with Entergy Corporation to bring the unit cost of electricity down but these negations just save money and don't help the environment. The only significant electricity conservation efforts have been in lighting. There are many other ways to say electricity and money on campus. Fluctuations in summer weather could have a significant effect on the use of electricity because air conditioners would have to work longer. According to Tulane Physical Plant the most expensive building to supply is Percival Stern Hall. Conservation efforts in just this one building could mean big saving for Tulane and decreased impact on the environment.

Petrol Fuels

Fuel Prices: Diesel/Unleaded Gasoline 1992-1995

year      diesel (gallons / price)      unleaded (gallons / price)

1992      900 / 679.12                   1850 / 965.03

1993      800 / 311.15                   1400 / 1440.755

1994      600 / 408.34                   2633.33 / 2805.333

1995      850 / 757.97                   2675 / 3416.122

These findings are based on receipts from the Tulane Physical Plant.

It can be deduced that roughly $41,000 is spent each year on fuel. These numbers do not reflect the amount of gas used by students. The figures show a dramatic increase in fuel prices between 1994 and 1995, which is most likley due to the increased fuel tax.

Tulane University spends an incredible amount of money on its energy requirements. Because it is such a large institution its energy requirements affect the school's finances; more importantly, they affect the environment. While Tulane has implemented an aggressive lighting overhaul it has failed to undertake more costly conservation efforts that would lower petroleum and natural gas consumption as well as reduce electric consumption related to heating and air conditioning. Air conditioning constitutes the largest use of electricity and heating is the largest consumer of natural gas.

Energy Conservation Measures

In 1996, Tulane contracted E Source, Inc., to do an audit of university energy consumption and offer recommendations on energy efficiency. Tulane then embarked on a fairly progressive energy conservation program, which will cost approximately $10 million over the course of several years. This cost should be covered by the savings that the new energy conservation measures (ECMs) will produce annually. 35% in annual savings is expected to be achieved through upgrades in lighting efficiency and elimination of deficiencies in cooling, heating, ventilation and dehumidification of buildings on campus. According to Gregory Chlup, the director of the physical plant, Tulane is planning a number of energy conservation projects, including changing the campus energy infrastructure, putting in a new air handling management system, metering and monitoring all buildings over 20,000 sq. ft., replacing inefficient boilers with smaller, more efficient ones, and replacing the current pumping system with primary/secondary pumping with variable speed drives.

Currently, Tulane is focusing on the lighting retrofit, which is already underway. They started with Howard-Tilton Library, where they expected to achieve the greatest savings. All the 40 Watt incandescent lights were replaced with 32 Watt fluorescent. In the Exit signs, new light bulbs are being installed which use only 2 Watts as opposed to the old 30 Watt incandescent. In addition, the old magnetic ballast systems are being replaced with electronic ballast systems, which are much more energy efficient. These more efficient lighting systems also produce less heat and therefore cut down on the 10-25 percent of the cooling load which is contributed by lighting. This lighting program will be implemented in all the academic buildings, excluding dormitories; and this program should be finished by the end of April 1997. The program is a big step in the right direction, but this type of conservation could be improved in other systems. Implementation campus wide should be a goal. Also, it has been suggested for Tulane to make an even stronger move toward more energy -efficient lighting by joining the U.S. E.P.A. Green Lights College and University Program, which could help maximize energy savings, as well as providing education, training, publicity and networking opportunities in energy-efficiency. However, when asked why Tulane was not a part of the EPA Green Lights Program, Chlup stated that Tulane is already ahead of this program with its own project and that the program did not offer anything to Tulane except the EPA name and a large amount of paper work for an understaffed department.

Air Conditioning

Although Tulane is making an effort in the area of lighting, the issue of cooling, which uses the most energy and costs the most money and is thus the biggest problem, has yet to be actively tackled. Most of the air conditioning is controlled by pneumatic thermostats, which are on a spring system, instead of much more efficient digital ones. All the new buildings on campus will have direct digital control (DDC) thermostats rather than the older, less efficient pneumatic ones, but there doesn't appear to be a plan to make this switch in the older buildings, where the pneumatic devices are already in place. Currently, Tulane is waiting until air units reach the end of their life span and actually fail before replacing them with more efficient units. As opposed to the lighting system, they are not in the process of actively replacing cooling units. Another area of inefficiency is in gas consumption. The steam boilers in the buildings, which are gas-powered, are inefficient because gas and heat are constantly being lost through leakage in the pipes. Tulane has already replaced some boilers with smaller, more efficient ones, an effort which is part of the overall energy conservation plan and should be continued over the next few years.

According to Chlup, the reason there has not been a decrease in overall energy consumption on the Tulane campus is that the figures are distorted due to the addition of two more buildings. Thus, Tulane has maintained the same energy consumption levels despite the addition of two extra buildings, and consumption would certainly have decreased without these new buildings. Chlup was not clear on the time frame involved in implementing all of the projected changes. He estimated that it was four years or more and that with these additional changes a substantial decrease in consumption as well as cost would occur. Basically, Tulane has an excellent plan for upgrading the campus's energy efficiency. What remains is to actually carry this plan out over the next few years and to continue to provide the physical plant with the money it needs to implement the various projects.

Comparisons

The electric bills of other schools are also a good indicator of how efficient Tulane is. Here are the electric bill figures for other campuses from 1993-1994:

Tulane:

enrollment: 11,000

electric bill: $3,594,401

kilowatt hours: 57,167,575

per student: 5,197 kWh/$326.7

University of South Carolina:

enrollment: 27,590

electric bill: $6,609,485

kilowatt hours: 149,298,720 kWh

per student: 5411 kWh/$239.56

University of Pennsylvania:

enrollment: 21,150

electric bill: $22,770,000

kilowatt hours: 330,000,000 kWh

per student: 15,602 kWh/$1076.59

SUNY Buffalo:

enrollment: 25,000

electric bill: $132,306,521

kilowatt hours: 217,149,184 kWh

per student: 8,868 kWh/$529

Vanderbilt:

enrollment: 10,070

electric bill: $10,070,000 (estimated)

per student: $1,000

In comparison to a few other universities, Tulane did not fare as badly as other schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt. In fact, after the University of South Carolina, Tulane had the lowest electricity usage/bill per students although this might be partly due to the fact that many Tulane students do not live on campus. However, like any other school, Tulane still has many improvements to make. Many of the schools listed, such as Vanderbilt, are in the process of implementing programs to lower their energy bills.

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