Free Energy Code Workshop Set for Feb. 7 in Rifle

Code Officials, contractors, and design professionals are invited to a free energy-code workshop. Colorado Code Consulting will present "Combined Mechanical Requirements of the 2009 IECC" on Feb. 7 at Rifle City Council Chambers, 202 Railroad Ave., Rifle. The workshop will run 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The class will focus on both the residential and commercial requirements of the IECC and where there may be any conflicts with the other codes. This will not be an in-depth class into Manual J or calculations for commercial applications but rather an overview of the requirements and what enforcement might look like. Lunch will be provided at the workshop.
The workshop is cosponsored by the Town of Carbondale, CLEER, CORE, the Governor's Energy Office, and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. To register, please visit www.iccsafe.org/colorado. You will be required to create a free ICC user name and password to sign up for classes but ICC membership is not required. If you have questions, please contact Shaunna Mozingo, Colorado Code Consulting, LLC, 303-598-3465 or smozingo@coloradocode.net.

Alpine Bank Achieves 5-Month Payback on Energy Investment

Alpine's John Evans at the Rifle branch.

The folks at Alpine Bank’s Central Operations facility are enjoying a remarkable achievement in terms of saving energy: a five-month payback on energy investments that have reduced electrical usage by 7.2 percent.
The investment was on CLEER’s Energy Navigator, a web-based tool that allows facility managers to monitor energy usage in their facilities.
Alpine Bank spent $7,000 installing the Navigator in Alpine’s Central Operations (“COPS”) building. A grant from CLEER (Clean Energy Economy for the Region) covered $5,000 of the cost, and since the Navigator was installed in June, changes in building operation have saved an additional $2,000.
“The best thing about this is that from here forward we keep what we save,” said John Evans, Facilities Officer with the bank.
According to Evans, the installation of the Navigator raised employee awareness of energy use and bank officials ran some experiments to see what seemingly small efforts could save energy on a daily basis. Simultaneously they adjusted the thermostat schedules and checked HVAC equipment condition.
Evans found that Central Operations was already managed pretty well from the control side (temperatures and scheduling) thanks to Alpine’s Silt-based maintenance department. His team also found that the second floor data room typically used 40 percent of the building’s energy during the workweek and around 65 percent on weekends during the cooling season.
“By finessing the buildings awake and sleep times, occupied and unoccupied temperature setpoints and setbacks, we made some gains,” Evans noted.
One gain came from completely shutting down computers and equipment at day’s end. The Navigator also helped Evans and his team ensure that 12 rooftop heating and cooling units are operating as well as they can.
The primary objective, however, was to maintain comfort.
“The main goal was to optimize employee comfort levels,” Evans noted. “The second order is to be smarter with energy management and save when we can.”

Carbondale Community School Cutting Energy Use with Simple Techniques

Students and staff at the Carbondale Community School are making a big dent in their energy bills through the use of programmable thermostats throughout the school. CLEER assisted Principal Tom Penzel in working with SourceGas to obtain thermostats (free of charge). CLEER's Energy Coaches then helped the school's facility manager install and program thermostats in September 2010, and the school has been watching the savings ever since-in fact, energy use in 2011 was 30 percent lower and the amount the school spent on energy was 35 percent lower in 2011 than in 2010.
The school has a radiant heating system. Such systems can keep people comfortable while using less energy than other heating systems. School officials used the thermostats to set the temperature lower on nights and weekends ("setbacks") and by doing intentional "shutdowns" over the 2010-11 Christmas/New Year's break.
According to CLEER energy engineer Mike Ogburn, many building managers and owners believe that overnight setbacks aren't really possible with radiant heating systems, based on worries about the time required to heat the systems up each morning. The school, he said, "disproved that myth" by setting back temperatures 5 degrees on nights and weekends while keeping students and teachers comfortable during the school day.
CLEER also identified a pump that was running continuously, sending hot water to bathroom sinks even in the middle of the night. The facility manager was able to install a timer switch and the hot water recirculation pump now sends water to distant bathrooms only when the building is occupied, saving both electricity for the pump and natural gas to heat the water.
"A big thanks to CLEER and Mike Ogburn, who has been incredibly helpful in this endeavor!" noted Penzel.
The school's energy use can be seen on the Energy Navigator under "Community Partners."

Banker finds energy efficiency upgrades

As a successful community banker for 21 years, Alpine Bank's Jay Rickstrew has learned a thing or two about smart, conservative investing.So when it came time to invest in his aging bank building on Fourth Street in downtown Rifle, he measured life-cycle costs for equipment options and considered long-term energy prices. The banker ran the numbers on an upgrade of the heating and cooling equipment in the building, originally constructed decades ago as First National Bank.
Read more here.

CLEER Results as of November 2011

Energy Navigator
Eighty-one large public buildings are tracking and saving energy through a powerful new CLEER-created tool, launched in 2011: www.garfieldenergynavigator.org. Energy use for these large buildings is equal to 4,100 average homes.  These buildings are already saving nearly $100,000 per year in large part due to CLEER assisting facility managers in using energy feedback capabilities of the Energy Navigator.

Renewable Energy
Sixteen public buildings now have renewable energy systems, all together generating more than 368 kilowatts of energy. CLEER’s Energy Navigator incorporates solar PV tracking of 11 major solar installations at Garfield Clean Energy partner facilities. Energy produced by these systems saves county partners approximately $50,000 per year in energy produced by these systems. In addition, 21 homes and businesses in Glenwood Springs now have solar, thanks to CLEER programs.

Garfield Clean Energy Challenge for Businesses
Seventy-four businesses are participating in our Clean Energy Challenge, a regional energy-saving and economic development program. Sixty-four businesses have had energy assessments, and 35 businesses have already achieved measureable energy and economic benefits.

Garfield Clean Energy Challenge for Homes
Two hundred and seventy-one households are actively participating in the residential energy-saving program, and 108 households have had energy upgrades. Homes and businesses are saving more than $310,000 in energy costs per year as a result of energy savings to date, putting money into the local economy that would otherwise be spent on energy. Totaling the programs listed above, savings from our work in renewable energy and building energy efficiency equals over $1.4 million annually.

Energy in the Schools
Seventeen area schools are participating in our clean energy transportation program, which had over 7,000 thousand students biking, walking, and taking the bus during transportation challenge week. More than twenty schools are tracking and saving energy resulting in more than $150,000 in school utility bill savings.

Alternative Transportation Fuels
Four neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) and nine compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG) are now in use by governments partnering with Garfield Clean Energy. CLEER also assisted a local fuel station owner in building a CNG fueling station in Rifle, Colo. and many local businesses in Rifle and Parachute are adopting CNG vehicles as a result.  CLEER was awarded a grant to prepare the region for highway-capable electric vehicles and is also working with fleets to enable their adoption of CNG-powered heavy-duty trucks and buses.

Trainings & Workshops
In 2011, CLEER and Garfield Clean Energy held more than a dozen workshops and trainings attended by over 500 energy contractors, elected officials, and citizens.

Regional Cooperation & Clean Energy Financing
Nine government partners are now working together through Garfield Clean Energy to improve the economy through energy efficiency, and are launching a structure for reaching dramatic clean energy improvements long term. CLEER established clean energy financing to help businesses and homeowners overcome financing barriers to clean energy.