Practical Implications of Energy and Water Efficiency in Laboratories
Jerry Bauers, Sebesta Blomberg & Associates
Carol Donovan, Sebesta Blomberg & Associates
Sebesta Blomberg has undertaken an effort to provide real world data that demonstrates the effectiveness of energy- and water-saving strategies in laboratories. Using both data reports in literature and our own experience in commissioning and retro-commissioning laboratory facilities across the country, we will present actual results of implementing energy- and water-saving strategies in operating laboratory environments. Further, we propose to highlight the practical impediments to successfully implementing the best strategies and propose methods to overcoming these impediments.
The presentation will focus on creating effective and efficient operations in the operating laboratory through rigorous and innovative design and construction phase commissioning and retro-commissioning strategies. Further, we will examine the sustainability of the implemented strategies based on post occupancy evaluations of the abilities of operating teams to sustain the implemented strategies. Our approach draws on the lessons learned in occupied laboratories and the personnel, equipment, and operational challenges in sustaining the benefits of these strategies over the long term.
The presentation will deal with both low cost 'configuration and maintenance' strategies (e.g., static pressure reset, selection and adjustment of air flow rates, major component staging controls, and occupancy driven system operations) and innovative higher cost equipment and system strategies commonly found in new laboratory designs. Based on our efforts over the past seven years, we will identify the challenges in the real world of both communicating innovative strategies to construction teams and implementing these strategies with teams that have no similar experience to guide their construction and start up efforts.
Using field performance data and lessons learned from projects in our New England market areas, we will examine the real world results of strategies from building programming for effective system scheduling, air flow rate selection, and laboratory optimization strategies for variable volume control, pressure control in air handling units, laboratory spaces and buildings, energy and water recovery and lighting and power control strategies to minimize both occupied and unoccupied energy consumption.
Biographies:
Jerry Bauers, PE, is the national director of commissioning for Sebesta Blomberg Associates. Mr. Bauers has provided building design, commissioning and retro-commissioning services for the past 35 years. He has been a National Environmental Balancing Bureau (NEBB)-certified professional in building system commissioning services, testing, and balancing and clean room certification for more than 25 years. Mr. Bauers is a past president of NEBB. As a member of the NEBB Building System Commissioning Committee, Mr. Bauers led NEBB's retro-commissioning program development and has served as an instructor for both commissioning and retro-commissioning training seminars for more than five years. His work has included commissioning and retro-commissioning of industrial laboratories, research and teaching laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and data centers. He speaks regularly on the subject of commissioning and retro-commissioning of complex facilities.
Mr. Bauers provides support and training for the 250-person Sebesta Blomberg & Associates organization. Sebesta Blomberg provides professional services to support the integrated and sustainable operation of institutional, industrial, and commercial facilities. Commissioning and retro-commissioning services have been integrated with facility support services including facility maintenance management, construction management, development and implementation of computerized maintenance management systems, operational sustainability services, and specialized training services.
Carol Donovan is a mechanical engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the engineering field, specifically in design and construction directly relating to commissioning of heating, ventilating, air condition, plumbing, and fire protection systems. Ms. Donovan has a strong background in building resource efficiency, including testing and balancing procedures, automated temperature controls, and calculations for energy- and water-savings. She has served as the project manager on numerous large and small scale laboratory and research facility projects with excellent skills in management, communication, and team building.
Ms. Donovan has led Sebesta Blomberg's efforts to evaluate laboratory performance and energy efficiency thru comparison of measured field results compared to projections in project design documents and in literature.