Facilities Operations Ensures Maximum Efficiency through Continuous Energy Conservation Measures

The Engineering and Energy team within Columbia’s Operations department maintains the heating and cooling systems — as well as all electrical and fire safety systems — on Columbia’s campuses. Energy engineers within the department are continuously improving these vital systems using data and technology. They conduct regular audits and track energy use to optimize energy efficiency, as well as lead both future planning and ongoing projects with a sustainability lens.

Various ECMs have been recently completed, are currently underway, or are in the planning stages at each of Columbia’s campuses. ECMs play an important role in achieving the University’s goals laid out in Plan 2030 by reducing heating and cooling loads at campus buildings, which decreases energy expenditure and GHG emissions.

Steam Piping Insulation Upgrades at Morningside Campus

Recently, Operations conducted a steam piping audit across the Morningside campus and found many sections that could use insulation upgrades. Some valves and steam traps were uninsulated because of their unusual shape, while others had insulation that had been damaged over time. While linear insulation and jackets were being installed, the contractor found even more opportunities for improvement and the upgrades are still ongoing.

“Proper insulation is important for steam pipes to minimize heat loss across the system,” said Energy Engineer Sean Morris.

Morris also explained that the jackets chosen to cover Morningside campus’s steam valves are innovative in multiple ways. First, they do not connect to the valves with wires, but instead use straps, making them easy to take on and off for maintenance. The manufacturer also included a QR code on each jacket to tag and identify where it belongs, which helps ensure the jacket will be replaced correctly after maintenance.

The project will result in an estimated natural gas savings of 280,000 therms per year, which is equivalent to about 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).

Optimizing Air Handling at the Northwest Corner Building and Columbia Business School

Often, ECMs focus on optimizing controls to ensure the most energy-efficient building ecosystem without replacing physical equipment. In the Northwest Corner Building on Columbia’s Morningside campus, a low-cost controls upgrade project is underway to reduce fan energy usage and improve heat recovery from conditioned air.

The Northwest Corner Building contains four air handling units that share a common air duct. Energy engineers determined that the fans could be synced more optimally, instead of responding to their own local conditions, to reduce how hard they must run. Morris added that there is also a heat recovery system installed with the building that can be leveraged more effectively to harvest heat and cooling from exhaust air, which reduces energy waste. Because the building hosts many labs, there are safety protocols in place that limit the connectivity of air streams, so heat recovery is performed using a water loop between the supply and exhaust air which avoids direct contact between them.

“Part of the beauty of upgrades like this is that they don’t require us to buy new, expensive equipment or disrupt regular building operations to install anything,” said Morris. “It’s all about using data and technology to take what we already have and use it in the most energy-efficient way.”

On the Manhattanville campus, a similar project is beginning at the Business School’s Henry R. Kravis and David Geffen buildings. Each building has five intricate air handling units on the roof with controls that are proprietary to the manufacturer, so Manhattanville’s Building Controls (BC) team is currently unable to make adjustments as they see opportunities for operational and energy efficiency improvements. The objective of the upcoming project is to replace the controls with a system that can be adjusted and improved on-site as needed, while maintaining the use of all existing equipment.

Within the scope of the project, an engineer will set the new controls to the most efficient sequence, optimizing heating and cooling cycles throughout both buildings. A pilot project is planned for one of the air handling units first before rolling out to the other nine units. In preparation for the project, a study was done by a third-party consultant to verify and calculate the total energy savings. The pilot project alone is expected to save approximately $27,000 in annual utilities costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the campus by approximately 49 tCO2e each year.

“This work is at the intersection between improving general operations with energy efficiency,” said Energy Engineer Alexander Duleba. “It’s always a collaborative effort with the building operators, who are focused primarily on occupant comfort and system reliability, as their expertise can help flag areas of potential improvement in energy efficiency as well.”

It's important to note that even in new, state-of-the-art buildings, there are often opportunities for energy optimization. As technology advances rapidly and the understanding of building performance grows, ECMs allow engineers to fine-tune systems, adapt to changing usage patterns, and incorporate the latest energy-saving strategies. This ongoing process of improvement ensures that all buildings, regardless of age, can operate at peak efficiency and contribute to Columbia's sustainability goals.

Increasing Efficiency through Controls Upgrades at Jerome L. Greene Science Center

At Jerome L. Greene Science Center, a project is in early planning stages to optimize air flow and humidity controls throughout the lab-heavy building. The labs — mission-critical to the Center — are the sites of experiments which can be sensitive to humidity and require high outside air flows that lead to high energy use. The Operations team is putting together a Scope of Work for a balancer to review the air-side systems, ensuring design flows are being met and there are no leaks or choke points that could be misdirecting conditioned air.

Additionally, the Jerome L. Greene building employs a humidification system not often seen in New York City — sourced from atomized, deionized water rather than steam. Starved for minerals, deionized water can degrade certain metals it comes into contact with. Building operators have flagged instances where this corrosive water is carrying over onto fans, causing equipment damage while still not meeting the humidification requirements set in the building design. Through coordination with the Operations team and the manufacturer, controls adjustments were identified which could address the current issues. These adjustments will be tested in the coming fall when outside air humidity drops.

Simultaneously, the team will acquire more corrosion-resistant equipment and implement a replacement plan which will allow for continuous operation of the building during construction.

“We will see energy savings from continuous visibility into and adjustment of air flow into spaces without over-ventilating spaces, while also meeting humidity requirements,” said Duleba. “And the plan is to do it using as much existing equipment and with as little occupant disruption as possible.”

While exact energy savings for this project have not yet been calculated, the anticipated savings are significant.