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Roseville, Minn. — July 6, 2015 — The Ramsey County Library here is saving more than $10,000 annually in utility charges as a result of completing a recommissioning of its facility.
The library partnered with Uhl Company Inc., a provider of building automation, security systems, and energy services, and Xcel Energy, the local utility, on the $13,300 project.
Uhl implemented several energy conservation measures in the library that saved energy and qualified the library to earn utility rebates to help cover some of the project’s costs. Based in Maple Grove, Minn., Uhl is a member firm of the InsideIQ Building Automation Alliance, an international alliance of independent building automation contractors.
Ramsey County Library in Roseville is a 70,000-square-foot facility constructed in 1993 with a major addition in 2010 that qualified the building for LEED Gold. In addition to library uses, other building functions include offices, conference rooms, and a coffee shop. The building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is controlled by an advanced building automation system (BAS).
Ramsey County asked Uhl to conduct a recommissioning study at the library in 2013. The goal of this study was to review the building’s existing equipment and identify ways to make it run more efficiently and generate cost savings. The study included functional testing of major equipment and the use of analytics to identify seasonal energy conservation opportunities.
Uhl’s Roseville Library recommissioning study identified many energy conservation opportunities (ECOs) in the facility and the county chose to implement most of them. Utility rebates of $7,673 from Xcel Energy helped cover the upfront costs of the project. Once implemented, the ECOs lowered natural gas use 5,038 therms and saved 54,420 kWh in electricity, for a utility cost reduction of $10,518. Overall, savings were 5 percent more than projected, and the payback period for the library was just over six months.
“Ramsey County implemented the recommissioning along with analytics to help determine best practices in development of a sustainability model for our facilities. This project has proven to us that even in a LEED Certified building less than five years old we still have opportunities to save energy,” said Gary Mrachek, director of building operations for Ramsey County Property Management.
More information is available about the alliance is available at www.insideiq.org.
