Please find below a video link introducing a recently published article in Chicagoland Buildings + Environment entitled “The Future of Decarbonization in Chicago” authored by Elara’s Senior Energy Engineer Matt Johnson, PE, CEM, CEA, LEED AP.
Elara Engineering would like to remind our clients that Energy Benchmarking for the City of Chicago and the City of Evanston are due this June. For more information about the ordinance and required compliance actions please see below and click here. Additionally, Kelsey Dale would be happy to answer any of your questions and assist in verification of your building’s data. She can be reached at 708.236.0300 x147 or kdale@elaraeng.com.
City of Chicago Benchmarking Verification Due June 1st
The City of Chicago requires owners of commercial, residential, and municipal buildings over 50,000 SF to track and verify (every third year by a professional) their building’s energy consumption using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Tool. The deadline to update and verify your building’s data is June 1, 2021.
City of Evanston Benchmarking Verification Due June 30th
The City of Evanston requires owners of commercial, residential, and municipal buildings over 20,000 SF to track and verify (every third year by a professional) their building’s energy and water consumption using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Tool. This includes apartment buildings, strip malls, schools, churches, hospitals, and condominium buildings. In addition, city-owned buildings, 10,000 SF or greater in size are required to comply. It should be noted that condominium buildings 20,000 SF to 50,000 SF are exempt from the ordinance. The deadline to update and verify your building’s data is June 30, 2021.
Continuing to build from our increase in staff, project locations in more states, greater involvement in K-12 schools, and philanthropic involvement from our dedicated employees, we eagerly look forward to providing our clients in 2021 with constructible, energy efficient designs that help the environment, save money, and increase asset value.
Elara Engineering would like to remind our clients that the City of Evanston requires owners of commercial, residential and municipal buildings over 20,000 SF to track and verify (every third year by a professional) their building’s energy and water consumption using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Tool. This includes apartment buildings, strip malls, schools, churches, hospitals, and condominium buildings. In addition, city-owned buildings, 10,000 SF or greater in size are required to comply. It should be noted that condominium buildings 20,000 SF to 50,000 SF are exempt from the ordinance. The deadline to update and verify your building’s data is June 30, 2020. At this time, the deadline for compliance with the city has not been extended, however there is still time to complete benchmarking for this year.
More information about this city ordinance and required compliance actions can be found here. Additionally, Kelsey Dale from our Hillside office would be happy to answer any of your questions and assist in verification of your building’s data. She can be reached at 708.236.0300 x147 or kdale@elaraeng.com.
In 2017, the City of Chicago created the Chicago Energy Rating System to improve the visibility and transparency of information required to be reported by building owners under the City’s 2013 Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance. As most of Elara’s clients already know, the Energy Benchmarking Ordinance requires large buildings located in Chicago (≥50,000 SF) to report energy use once per year, with additional data verification required every 3 years.
Under the new Chicago Energy Rating System, the first ratings were assigned between late August and mid-September 2019 for energy benchmarking reports that were due on June 1, 2019. Now that the first ratings have been assigned, building owners will receive an initial six-month period within which they are required to post their Chicago Energy Rating Placard on site in a prominent location and begin sharing the rating at the time of listing for sale or lease.
How Chicago Energy Ratings are Assigned
Under the four-star rating system, four stars will indicate the highest energy performance while a one-star rating will indicate a poor energy performer. Properties that have not submitted energy benchmarking information will receive zero stars.
Approximately 85% of buildings that report their data receive a 1-100 ENERGY STAR score from the Portfolio Manager energy benchmarking software. These buildings will, based on their 1-100 ENERGY STAR score, receive between one and four stars on the four-star Chicago Energy Rating System. Buildings with one, two, or three stars will be able to earn an additional star if they have improved by at least 10 points in the past two reporting years.
Approximately 15% of the reporting properties that are not eligible to receive a 1-100 ENERGY STAR score. These properties will receive an energy rating based on the building’s source energy use intensity (EUI), which is energy use per square foot, in comparison to national medians for properties of similar size and type. The lower the percentile for Source EUI, the better, as a lower EUI indicates less energy use per square foot. In these cases, the Chicago Energy Rating will be based on the following scale:
What Building Owners Need to Do
Additional information about the Chicago Energy Rating System can be found here.
Background
The Montreal Protocol is a global agreement with the goal of phasing out the use and production of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS), which include hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). To meet the goals established by the Montreal Protocol, HCFCs must be phased out by January 1, 2020; and will therefore, no longer be produced or imported into the U.S. after that date.
Although other HCFCs can be sometimes be found in currently used refrigeration equipment, the most common HCFC by far is HCFC-22 or R-22. This refrigerant is used in existing air conditioners and refrigeration equipment including unitary air conditioners, cold storage, retail food refrigeration equipment, chillers, and industrial process refrigeration.
Many recall the first step of the HCFC phase out, which occurred on January 1, 2010 and resulted in the production of R-22 to be significantly reduced. Since the initial phase out, the cost of R-22, and therefore the cost of maintaining equipment using R-22, has become increasingly expensive. After the upcoming phase out, only reclaimed or stockpiled R-22 can be used for maintenance of R-22 refrigeration equipment. It is expected that the cost of R-22 will significantly increase with the latest phase due to limited and dwindling supplies.
Options for Building Owners and Managers
With potentially many pieces of air conditioning equipment under their care and responsibility, the upcoming R-22 phase-out deadline means that building owners and managers need to establish a viable, common-sense course of action to pursue. Several options are available.
Options Guidance and Cost Reduction Opportunities
With expertise in energy audits and studies, master planning, engineering design, equipment identification and selection; Elara Engineering is well-positioned to identify, evaluate, and pursue a technically and financially sound R-22 phase-out option. In addition, having procured a cumulative total of over $5MM in incentives from ComEd, Peoples Gas, and Nicor to help offset costs associated with the installation of energy efficient improvements, Elara can assist clients, when combined with applicable tax breaks, minimize R-22 phase-out costs as much as possible.
As part of Marist College’s 12th Annual Sustainability Week held from October 22-25, 2018, Elara Principal Don McLauchlan was invited to present the Economic Benefits of Sustainability in support of the week’s theme: “Marist Sustainability: From Strategic Goals to Sustainable Action.”
Marist College, located on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York, has – according to a message from its President, David Yellen – “been a longtime leader in preserving and protecting the Hudson River valley” and believes that “colleges and universities must take the lead in educating people about the issues related to sustainability, as well as setting an example of environmental stewardship.” Don McLauchlan, with his career-long passion for energy efficiency, continues to be — along with the entire Elara Engineering team – a strong catalyst for innovative engineering solutions that deliver sustainable energy efficiencies that minimize environmental impacts and save money.
Don’s presentation and subsequent Q&A session covered a wide range of topics. To view some of what he said, just click on the following video clips:
Reduce Energy for No Increase in Cost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXz4XvH2S8I
1 Watt Saving at the Room Level Saves 4 Watts at the Source
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhlPPY25ag
Net Zero Energy Buildings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brOcj0BN2v4
Radiant Heating and Cooling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbisANFdPEc
Reuse of Piping for Retrofits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHsJQKOMmXk
To support the initiatives of Heartland Housing, Inc — a division of the Heartland Alliance (Chicago, IL) and a developer/manager of sustainable, innovative and high-quality affordable housing for at-risk populations — Elara provided advice, planning, and direction to the entire project team regarding MEPFP and sustainable features, including solar domestic hot water and geothermal heating and cooling.
Rethke Terrace in Madison, WI is a 36,000 ft², 4-story, newly constructed supportive housing facility with 60 studio, single-occupant units serving the formerly homeless or those at risk of homelessness. The property has 5,000 ft² of common area and office space for property management and four case workers, assembly space, a computer room, a library/quiet room, a fitness room, and a commercial kitchen for residents and the neighborhood.
With Elara’s efforts, Rethke Terrace achieved Passive House certification and a LEED Platinum designation for Homes (Midrise). Contributing design elements include wall assembly features with advanced framing details and an air-tight envelope, window heights and placement that maximize natural day-lighting, energy efficient lighting design, energy recovery ventilators, Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) heating and cooling systems to provide individual comfort control in units, occupancy sensors, window switches, kWh tracking, and remote building management.
Elara provided conceptual/pre-schematic design, schematic design, design development, bidding, and construction observation services. To support the project’s early planning phases, Elara performed energy modeling and building optimization based on numerous interacting effects; evaluated the most cost-effective building design; explored net-zero energy opportunities; and optimized lighting design and controls, including a detailed light level analysis, daylighting, occupancy control, and layouts to minimize energy while maximizing occupant satisfaction. A renewable energy analysis was also completed that evaluated multiple options, including geothermal, and their performance. Elara also evaluated plumbing heat recovery and rain water retention/reuse.
The HVAC system ultimately selected due to Elara’s work maximized energy efficiency and savings and minimized cost with respect to building envelope design.
Based on a recommendation from Elara Engineering’s Energy Audit and HVAC/Mechanical Systems Assessment of the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel, Elara recently completed a chiller plant replacement and chiller heat recovery implementation project that reduced utility costs by $94,000 within the first 10 months of operation (projected at $116,000 annually). Elara’s assessment identified additional improvement opportunities with a potential to reduce the hotel’s operating costs up to an additional estimated $125,000 per year.
The Pere Marquette Hotel, an 18-story luxury hotel located in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter was originally constructed in 1925, renovated in 2001, and underwent repairs to the base building after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The property has 275 guest rooms, restaurant, café, fitness center, banquet and conference facilities, offices, and a parking garage.
Due to costly, repeated issues with compressor failures, an upgrade of the hotel’s existing chilled water plant was identified as a priority project within Elara’s assessment report. Upon approval from the owner to implement the first of its recommendations, Elara;
As part of its heating and ventilation system evaluation for Eastland Elementary School for Community Unified School District (CUSD) 308 in Lanark, Illinois, together with Richard L. Johnson Associates Architects, Elara recommended improvements to the school’s existing HVAC system to address aging equipment, increase energy efficiency, and enhance occupant comfort. One improvement strategy included the design and installation of a Geothermal Heat Pump System for centralized space heating and cooling for the building.
The geothermal system designed by Elara was installed for an incremental cost of less than 10% of that to install a conventional heating and cooling system. Additionally, this environmentally-friendly approach is more energy efficient and eliminates future costs to replace central boiler and chiller plants approximately every 20 years. The system’s geothermal field, with its 36, 450-foot deep vertical wells is anticipated to last at least 50 years, with heat pump equipment replaced according to a traditional schedule.
For the system installation, a single pipe geothermal condenser water loop was utilized to serve the classroom heat pumps and to save material and labor costs of pipes routed through an existing utility tunnel. Elara also re-used two existing mezzanines above the gymnasium’s stage area to house new heat pump air handling equipment. Once Elara unified the HVAC systems for the building (which were previously disjointed due to numerous renovations and additions), a new direct digital control system was installed to maximize controllability and energy savings associated with the operation of the new equipment.
Through coordinated commissioning activities that included comprehensive functional testing, the identification of control sequencing modifications and reliability enhancements — considered to be of critical importance for lab space performance, and black out testing to verify emergency power functionality and emergency sequences for MEP systems throughout the building, Elara delivered a highly efficient building system with complete functionality.
Elara Engineering recently completed a mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection design for the renovation and expansion of Indian Trails Public Library in Wheeling, Illinois that is projected to result in a 40-50% reduction in energy use relative to other, typical library buildings. This sustained benefit was primarily derived from the innovative use of a geothermal heat pump heating and cooling system combined with energy efficient building materials and features.
The design team’s work addressed several issues impacting the original two-story building, including; substantial energy costs, poor indoor air quality, and outdated mechanical equipment. To correct this, the design team:
