Harvard Medical School’s Armenise Building hosts medical research laboratories, staff offices, classrooms, and a large lecture hall. As part of AKF’s ASHRAE Level II Energy Audit, we performed an in-depth hourly utility data analysis to verify operational trends and identify potential opportunities for equipment optimization.
AKF calculated the facility’s energy usage at 177.6 kBTU/SF and benchmarked it using the Labs21 Benchmarking Tool that compares the facility’s energy usage to other laboratory buildings of similar size, type, and usage. Additionally, utility consumption was correlated with heating and/or cooling degree days using a multi-variable regression analysis.
The analysis above guided the study and led to the identification of six low-cost and five capital improvement Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) totaling over $82,000 in yearly savings. Some of the ECMs related to lab areas include:
• Installation of a sensor at each fume hood to alert the user when the fume hood sash is open after an adjustable amount of time
• Implementation of a BMS alarm to indicate fume hoods left open during unoccupied hours
• Conversion of Constant Volume (CV) fume hoods to Variable Air Volume (VAV) fume hoods to maintain a constant face velocity and reduce the amount of conditioned air being exhausted through the fume hoods
Combined, the measures identified would reduce the overall building energy consumption by 9.3%, or approximately 2,193,000 kBTU per year.
Technical Statistics
