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Technologies for the Physical Plant

Building Smarts

7/1/2007

By Matt Villano

Hamilton College and Fairfield U: Innovative HVAC

While Adelphi has highlighted energy reduction as a strategic goal for 2007, the school also is investigating a new geothermal heating system to reduce HVAC costs. But Adelphi is not alone in this quest. At schools across the nation, IT and facilities management departments are collaborating on similar technologies that harness natural climactic conditions and existing energy sources to achieve savings in the areas of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, as well.

IT and facilities management pros at Hamilton College, for instance, recently compiled a number of technologies to comprise a web-based interface that managers at the school now use to control the school’s HVAC system. The solution, which launched in May, incorporates software and hardware from vendors such as Siemens, Saia, and Hansa, to name only a few.

While thermostats in individual classrooms report temperature in those spaces, and sensors determine when the rooms become occupied, behind the scenes the new system “finds” natural alternatives to heat and cool the rooms accordingly. Steve Bellona, associate vice president for facilities and planning, explains that to minimize waste, the solution takes advantage of chilly outside air to provide cooling, for instance, or recaptures the heat created from burning natural gas and works it back into the system.

AT FAIRFIELD U, a new turbine powered by natural gas provides electricity to the campus; engineers recently completed a system that captures heat from the process, powering the school’s HVAC system.

“We see this as a ‘closed-loop system’ approach to heating and cooling, as opposed to a ‘component approach’ that treats every building and classroom like its own spot,” he says. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to use technology to harness nature and get the most out of what we have so that we can save money down the road.”

Bellona says it’s still too early to determine exactly how much the system cost, but he notes that each Siemens thermostat cost roughly $1,000, and that the school will own 24 of the devices by the end of next year. Down the road, he says, Hamilton expects to save between $15,000 and $20,000 annually from reduced reliance on natural gas and electricity—figures that suggest the technology could pay for itself in a matter of years.

Similar innovative approaches are underway at Fairfield University, where technologists have teamed up with the school’s facilities management team to oversee a new heat and power project. At the heart of the project is a brand new turbine powered by natural gas. While the turbine itself provides electricity to the campus, engineers recently completed a system that captures heat from the process, powering the school’s HVAC system.