Energy awareness saves money at work, home Published Oct. 8, 2010 By John Pennell JBER PAO JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- October is Energy Awareness Month and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's energy team is working a three-pronged plan to reduce energy use, create new energy and change the culture of base energy users. Reduce demand JBER Resource Efficiency Manager Francis Sheridan explained changing demand comes in two basic categories: human, which is more behavioral in nature; and physical, which involves equipment such as new, more efficient, lights or motors. "Historically we've had a little more emphasis on the physical side," Sheridan said. "We're trying to even things out now. October is an ideal time to move in that direction and balance things out." Sheridan explained natural gas consumption accounts for about two-thirds JBER's energy use, and electricity about another third. "Most electrical use at JBER boils down to lighting or motors," he explained. "You make things move, or you light stuff. Electricity can be used to heat buildings, but at JBER we have almost none of that." Sheridan said when he came here more than four years ago, one topic seemed to top the list of most-needed fixes. "The lighting in a lot of our hangars and other critical facilities, pretty much all of it, wasn't bad - it was awful," he explained. So it was recommended he start his work there. "It isn't just energy reduction," Sheridan noted. "The larger goal is mission support. So that was kind of my springboard to Hangars 1, 2 and 3 and Facility 8326, and then we've done quite a bit more lighting." He said he found commonalities in the lighting used in the high-bay buildings like hangars. "For the high bays, invariably the technology we had is called HPS, or high-pressure sodium, which has been around a while," Sheridan explained. "It's the stuff we grew up with as kids; the street lights with an orange hue. "Fortunately, there's been a real revolution in lighting the last five or 10 years," he said. "It's pretty cool stuff they're coming up with." He said the changes come in the form of both energy efficiency and light quality. "The measure of the amount of light is called lumens, and every day they're coming out with more lumens per watt, which is the basic efficiency ratio," Sheridan said. "Another key thing that people know less about is the quality of light. It's usually measured by something called CRI, or color rendering index. It's simply a measure of how faithfully an artificial light source reflects back color. Natural daylight is the goal." Sheridan said old metal halide, or MH lamps are the second most common form of high-intensity discharge lighting technologies found in high bay facilities. He said it was not uncommon to find facilities with a mix of both HPS and MH lighting as bulbs were replaced over the years with whatever lighting was handy. "You might have two-thirds HPS and a third old metal halide or something like that," he said. He said he initially planned to use new high-bay fluorescent lighting in Hangars 1, 2 and 3, but changed his mind. Instead he chose to go with a different HID technology called pulse start ceramic metal halide, lighting which is much more efficient than the old lighting and has CRI scores up to .9. A CRI of .9 is roughly equivalent to 90 percent the quality of natural sunlight. Sheridan said the difference in the amount and quality of light in the hangars now compared to the old lighting is like the difference between night and day. "In Building 8326 for example, we increased lighting levels - those guys used to call it 'The Dungeon,' it was just a horribly lit, depressing place to work in," he said. "And the funny coincidence was about the same time the lights went in they painted the whole place white. So, between the new lights and the paint, you were kind of reaching for your SPF 50 when you walked in there. They were happy campers." Electrical energy savings have been difficult to quantify, as there have generally been no meters keeping track of energy use in the facilities, Sheridan noted, but new, high-tech meters will soon provide a much clearer picture of energy consumption for future upgrades. "I would say the new lighting we've put in are about 35 percent, about a third more energy efficient, but after about my first year here I woke up to the beauty of occupancy sensors and we've been putting them in routinely," he said. "I would say, quite frankly, we save 60 to 70 percent because a lot of the lights just stayed on when they didn't need to. "Now they are routinely shutting off.," he continued. "It's cool to see. You can be in one of the big warehouses over here and there's a whole huge section in the middle of the day that's all dark - because no one's been working there. "But if you walk in, it's just boom-boom-boom and the lights come on instantaneously," Sheridan said. "If they detect no motion for about a half-hour or so, they just shut off. A huge part of lighting efficiency is occupancy control." Sheridan said plans call for the continued upgrading of high-bay facility lighting next year with more facilities at the former Fort Richardson. He said he hasn't done much with motors, yet, but plans to incorporate them into future plans. "We're not considered an 'industrial' base," he explained. "But there's been a revolution in motors, too, and the better premium motors don't even cost that much more. I want to institutionalize that so all new motors at JBER will be premium efficiency." He noted Department of Energy reports indicate the cost of a piece of electrical equipment can be amazingly deceiving. "It turns out, above 50 horsepower, if you look at the total life cycle cost of an industrial motor, one percent of it is the upfront capital cost of the equipment installation," Sheridan explained. "Ninety-nine percent of the life cycle cost is electricity. Do you see why paying a little bit more for an efficient motor is a pretty good deal?" "That's one reason why I want to make sure that we're putting in the good motors, because it's just so obviously cost-effective," he said. "We're also trying to balance out the program and do more HVAC work. We've done a lot of lighting, and there's lots left to do, but that doesn't preclude the basic fact that in this climate is costs a lot more money to heat a building than it does to light it." Sheridan said the energy team is also responsible for water conservation and a water study is currently underway. Increase supply Having more energy on hand is another goal the energy team strives to meet, according to 2nd Lt Warren Wade, OIC for Energy Management. "There are potential sources for renewable energy for the base," Wade said. "The most promising is that right now Doyon Utilities, one of JBER-Richardson's utility privatization contractors, is negotiating with the Municipality of Anchorage for a power plant using landfill gas produced at the City's landfill which is adjacent to JBER-Richardson. That would be able to give us a large portion - approximately one quarter by 2025 - of our energy." Wade said JBER also has a project, inherited from Fort Richardson, awarded to install two hydroelectric generators to provide electricity for the base. Construction should begin with the next few years. He said the hydroelectric turbines won't provide as much power as the natural gas plant, but "will also be a source of renewable energy for us that will help decrease our dependence on external energy and save the base money." Wade and Sheridan said another potential source for renewable energy in Alaska includes wind power - with a wind farm being planned for Fire Island. "There are also some potential sites on JBER that we're investigating to create renewable energy via wind power," Wade said. Other possibilities available in Alaska include biomass, waste to energy, tidal energy at Point Cairn (the second-best tidal energy site in the world, after the Bay of Fundy), geothermal and hydro power. "There's so much renewable energy in Alaska, they haven't come close to mapping it all out yet," Sheridan said. "There's so much fossil fuel energy here like gas and oil, and renewable, there's not another state that's even in the ballpark with Alaska in terms of energy potential." Culture change Wade said an energy policy letter is currently being staffed and should be published soon. In the meantime, he said two simple actions could go a long way toward helping the base save energy and money. "The main two things we need people to do are turn off lights and set back thermostats," he said. "Those two combined could save a lot of energy for the base. " Wade said another energy and money saving action at home is as easy as changing out standard incandescent light bulbs for energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, and noted the CFL bulbs will be on sale at the base exchange in October. Although his office is more interested in energy efficiency in the workplace, Wade said good habits should carry over between work and home, and while turning off a light at home might not save money for the military budget, it could provide a few extra bucks for Soldiers and Airmen to spend somewhere else.