Estates
Energy
Projects
Summary of project details
Projects on academic sites
- Power management software to auto control PCs across campus
- Two projects currently running to auto shut down PCs at the end of the day. Currently operating on student labs and in the process of roll out onto staff PCs.
- Total project costs £58,846
- Anticipated annual energy savings 292,204 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 160 tonnes
- Free cooling trial to provide cooling to server room
- Trial using free cooling to provide ventilation to server room, previously cooled by air conditioning – potential for roll out onto further sites
- Total project costs £19,018.80
- Anticipated annual energy savings 42,609 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 23 tonnes
- VSD installation for improved control to ventilation system
- £5,252 project for installation of VSD and controls
- Anticipated annual energy savings 39,873 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 7 tonnes
- Voltage optimisation of satellite site
- £39,883 project to optimise incoming supply to satellite site
- Anticipated annual energy savings 94,800 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 50 tonnes
Numerous lighting projects, including:
- Motion sensors
- Light sensitive sensors to switch off lights when sufficient daylight is available
- LED replacement for existing halogen lamps
- Timer controls for lit advertising screens
- Large scale replacement of T8 fluorescent tubes with T8 eco tubes
Please let me know if you want further information on any of the above projects.
We have recently secured £250k for further lighting improvement throughout the University. The first phase of this is a project to replace corridor lighting through a large section of the University with LED lighting and install motion sensors. The following are details for this project:
- £47,537 total project costs
- Anticipated annual energy savings 55,015 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 29.5 tonnes
Projects on student accommodation
- Lighting controls
- £41,860 project to install automated lighting controls to 1,932 bed Student Village
- Anticipated annual energy savings 87,010 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 46.7 tonnes
- Draft proofing + heating and hot water controls to 1950s listed accommodation
- £22,974 total project costs to draft proof crittal windows and install timed controllers to electric heaters and hot water tanks
- Anticipated annual energy savings 88,640 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 47.5 tonnes
- Savawatt controls fitted to fridge and freezer units
- £24,743 project to install optimising controls to all fridge/freezers in 1,932 bed Student Village
- Anticipated annual energy savings 138,052 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 75 tonnes
- Under consideration: Electric heater controls to newly acquired halls
- Est. £17,795.14 project costs to install timer controls to electric heaters
- Anticipated annual energy savings 56,374 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 31 tonnes
- Roof insulation to 42 individual houses (currently being installed)
- £23,525 project to improve insulation to 42 houses
- Anticipated annual energy savings 94,313 kWh
- Anticipated annual CO2 savings 17.35 tonnes
Further projects of interest
- We are in the second phase of rolling out an M&T system across Frenchay campus and Bower Ashton Campus. Most electricity meters are now online and the next phase aims to get more gas meters online. Information from these meters is being used to benchmark buildings and we are making our way around the University, meeting with building users and identifying areas of waste by analysing this HH meter information.
- The next step of this is to display this information publically when people enter their building, so they are immediately aware of how their building is performing.
- We have secured £76k of funding to run a trial installing a gas CHP unit to provide hot water and electricity to one block of the Student Village. This has significant potential CO2 savings, and if successful the project could be “cut and paste” to the 23 other blocks of the village.
- We are currently reviewing our street light provision, for potential replacement with LED street lights.
- There are ongoing investigations into the use of renewable energy systems to provide electricity/heat to several of our buildings. Currently funding has not been secured to progress these projects but it is hoped that this will progress in the future.
Behaviour change projects
- Student Switchoff campaign
We are just entering the third year of this campaign which is a national campaign aiming to educate students on energy conservation. Power Rangers are recruited from the residents and different halls are pitched against each other in a bid to reduce energy use. Last year an average of 20% of students signed up to be Power Rangers which is a very positive response rate. Once recruited, they receive regular updates giving them tips which are also advertised through the Facebook page. Various activities are run throughout the year including training sessions. As well as the prizes offered through the national scheme (e.g. free Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream for a year, free club entry etc), the University offers large cash incentives for Students to reduce their energy use. Last year up to £750 was available to each student of the winning block. We have achieved large savings through this initiative, with an 11% reduction in electricity use in the Student Village last year.
- Sustainability champions
The University has a Sustainability Strategy, available on http://www.uwe.ac.uk/environment/documents/Strategy.pdf This details key objectives for the University in terms of its sustainability performance. One area of this is Carbon and air quality management, which lays out carbon reduction targets for the university.
Throughout the University, Sustainability Groups have been set up in each faculty or service, to write their own plan on how they will achieve the objectives set out in the strategy and what their departments unique contribution is to sustainability. Through this, I meet on a regular basis with these groups and offer them advice and tools on how to reduce energy in their areas. We hope to run an inter-building competition for staff, in a similar way to teh student campaign. Details of this and potential prizes are yet to be confirmed.
Awards
- Green Gown – Continuous Improvement, Institutional Change
The University won a Green Gown award for the above approach and ongoing effort to embed sustainability throughout the University. Although this focuses on sustainability generally and not specifically carbon reduction, you may be interested in the press release for this on http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/article.asp?item=1781&year=2010
- Carbon Trust Standard
The University achieved the Carbon Trust Standard in June 2010. Press release on this is available on http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/article.asp?item=1768&year=2010
- Times Higher Education Awards
The University was shortlisted in the Times Higher Education awards in 2009 for Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability.
