Undergraduate Research On Sustainability: Campus Energy Analysis And Building Lighting Audits (original) (raw)
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Undergraduate Research on Sustainability: Campus Energy Analysis and Building Energy Audits
In an innovative junior-senior engineering clinic course 1-2 four Rowan University undergraduate students worked on a multidisciplinary project to learn first hand what sustainability challenges are and what it means to be a professional energy auditor. Their task was to find out why Rowan University led a group of 20 peer universities and colleges in energy consumption per square foot and to assist the university in meeting its sustainability commitment to the Governor's Office and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. This is not easy given the exponential growth this southern New Jersey University has been experiencing in student population, energy use and building square feet. With the assistance of their professor and a professional energy auditor the team learned the basics of building energy analysis, how to perform lighting surveys and energy audits and developed recommendations to the University's Energy Review Panel. Their recommendations could save the University thousands of energy dollars, over a million kilowatt hours and Btu's, and tons of greenhouse gas emissions when implemented. This team of electrical, civil/environmental and mechanical engineers completed two comprehensive energy audits and began sub-metering analysis to prioritize which buildings on campus should be investigated first based upon their energy consumption. As is true of many large campus facilities served by a single primary electric account not all buildings are sub-metered and just where all the power is being used on campus is unknown without detailed investigation and analysis. The team rapidly began to identify potential sources of data for their analysis and proposed inexpensive sub-metering for those locations where no equipment was available. The result of their work was the saving of significant money on external consultants and the ability of the Energy Review Panel to rapidly prioritize where it would focus its energy conservation efforts. They have become familiar with many industrial and commercial energy conservation techniques as part of this innovative laboratory experience. The results they have generated are creating motivation for a broader introduction of these concepts into the engineering curriculum.
Collaboration With Industry To Promote Energy Conservation And Education
2009
The cooperation between academia and industry exposed Architectural Engineering students to a unique learning opportunity. The project addressed student learning and exposure to research while concurrently addressing energy conservation. The collaborative project allowed the expertise of University of Nebraska professors and students to be utilized in combination with the Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) financial and customer base support. The relationships built enriched student learning by providing real world engineering experiences. The students refined their research, communication, and presentation skills by interacting with and presenting engineering solutions to a wide range of professionals, engineering students, and the community. The students worked closely with professors to prepare professional documents, analyze data, and develop future research plans. Student interaction with the community also provides real world interactions in a business environment. The Unive...
Energy Audits And Sustainable Engineering
2009
Undergraduate Engineering majors are introduced to Sustainable Engineering by conducting energy audits at farms, office buildings, and industrial facilities. These projects provide real world experiences where the students are called upon to use all their book knowledge, common sense and resourcefulness to make a significant contribution to project goals. Work is conducted in an experiential learning course required by the engineering curriculum. When appropriate, students also work outside of class for pay, e.g., during the summer. Students work in multidisciplinary teams. They are responsible for interacting with clients, conducting audit inventories, simulating building performance with computer models, making recommendations, producing engineering reports, and making presentations. Typical recommendations focus on lighting, equipment & appliances, and HVAC systems. Students also assess the appropriateness of solar energy at many sites. The projects introduce student to the triple bottom line, i.e., projects must work at environmental, economic, and social levels. Students determine the costs, savings and payback periods associated with their recommendations. Though done in a less formal manner, they also consider the appropriateness of their recommendations at a social level. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiential education program that supports these activities, and evaluate the use of energy audits to teach students about sustainable engineering. Evaluations are based on observation and student deliverables.
Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2014
This paper describes a method of greening university campus buildings that normally contribute to a large amount of energy and water consumption, air pollution, and resource depletions. The University of Arizona became engaged in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment emphasizing those university campuses must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, and by providing their graduates the knowledge and education to achieve climate neutrality. The "House Energy Doctor" (HED) program is an education, research, and community outreach program at the University of Arizona's (UA) College of Architecture, planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA). During the last three years, and through a multiyear agreement between HED and the UA, Level III energy audits have been conducted on nine major campus buildings to identify energy efficiency opportunities that will contribute to the greening of campus. Some important findings focused on inefficient windows, external insulation, shading of critical building elements, energy-saving light fixtures, and envelope solar reflectance in summer. Strategies for mechanical systems propose changes to current thermostat set points, run periods, replacement of old components with higher efficiency units, and water harvesting of condensates for landscape use. The first three years of the "Greening of Campus" project demonstrated that the nine buildings total area of 1,081,512 ft² consumed an annual average 75,970,411 KBtu (70.2 KBtu/ft²) at the cost of 2,186,264peryear.TheimplementationoftheHouseEnergyDoctorrecommendationsfortheninebuildingswillyieldanannualenergysavingsof9,542,106KBtuandoperatingcostsavingof2,186,264 per year. The implementation of the House Energy Doctor recommendations for the nine buildings will yield an annual energy savings of 9,542,106 KBtu and operating cost saving of 2,186,264peryear.TheimplementationoftheHouseEnergyDoctorrecommendationsfortheninebuildingswillyieldanannualenergysavingsof9,542,106KBtuandoperatingcostsavingof265,318 (12.1%). This energy saving will help the environment by a reduction of 2,915 Metric tons of CO2 emission. The campus will also be saving 10.9 million gallons of water. In addition, two of nine buildings "Arizona-Sonora" and "La Aldea" have been successfully certified for Energy Star Designation. The method can be replicated in different units around campus and as a model for implementation in other university campuses around the world.
2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
Jennifer has been teaching thermal fluid topics and engineering design as a Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering department at Northern Arizona University since 2015. Prior to this, she spent two years in a research faculty role continuing earlier work on carbon capture technologies. She spent four years as a research/product development engineer for BASF where she was developing catalytic converter and refining catalyst technologies.
A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
We report our recent experience from a one-hour practicum course in which students were encouraged to take part in a sustainability competition organized by the student sustainability committee (SSC) at the University of Illinois. Goal of the four-hour practicum course required for the Master of Engineering in Energy Systems degree (ENG 572/573) at the University of Illinois [1] is to provide all students with a project or practicum (internship) opportunity to gain practical experience as well as develop written and oral communication skills. This year all new students in the program were required to sign up for one hour of ENG 573. (The remaining three hours are to be fulfilled in later semesters.) To provide the skills for group work and help develop written and communication skills, students formed groups and participated in the student sustainability competition organized yearly by the SSC. These groups, studied and analyzed options available to them, developed sustainability projects to be proposed, presented their ideas in front of their colleagues (in ENG 573) for critical feedback, consulted with personnel at university's facilities and services (F and S) and other departments, prepared the proposals, and then submitted them before the deadline. This paper is also a part of the exercise, written primarily by the students in class. It was a valuable experience. Based on lessons learned, this class will be offered again in this format in coming semesters.
Sustainable Energy for University Science Majors: Developing Guidelines for Educators
This paper describes the basic tenets of a sustainable energy course for university science majors. First, it outlines the three core components of the course: 1. The scientific evidence for the connection between climate change and energy usage; 2. An analysis of the capacity and environmental impact of various renewable and traditional energy resources; 3. An overview of alternative pathways for the main energy usage in society—heating/cooling, transportation, and manufacturing. The course aims not only to present factual knowledge, but also to develop a critical approach for weighing between alternative energy solutions based on quantitative analyses. To meet these objectives, we suggest pedagogical considerations for organizing the content of the course, supporting student learning and raising student interest. For example, quantitative problems that can be investigated in the course are discussed as well as place-based examples of energy production from the local environment that can increase motivation for learning. Lastly, we suggest an agenda for research that examines the outcomes of sustainable energy courses that utilize place-based pedagogy.
1979
Presented are materials prepared for the inservice education cf school maintenance personnel on the subject of energy conservation in school facilities operations. The cctIrse is designed to help maintenance staff understand their schools' energy usage and formulate plans to control that usage. Among the topics covered are building inventory, preventative maintenance, energy audits, roofs, lighting, and plumbing systems. The manual contains botn course guidelines for the instructor and worksheets for course participants to fill out in advance of each lesson. (Author/WB)