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Energy Management Retrofit for Arlington Independent School District
Abstract
Like many school districts in the southwest, the
Arlington Indement School District (AISD)
felt a need to upgrade their schools to maximize
their value for the gas and electricity being
used. They felt they needed to make sure that
energy was not being wasted and that any energy
conservation measure implemented would provide
good payback for the investment made by the
school district.
After conducting an extensive search to
determine the best way to identify and implement
energy conservation strategies, the school
district selected Johnson Controls, Inc. as the
company they felt could best help them achieve
the goals that they had set. AISD also
requested help in identifying the best way for
the school district to finance the measures
taken and for the tracking of the measures to
make sure the desired energy conservation goals
were met. Finally, the school district
requested, a guarantee that savings
goal be attained by an agreement that the
contractor pay for any "shortfall" in savings
that might occur.
The contractor was initially assigned the ten
schools which seemed to be the most wasteful
within the school district. With their
personnel, loads and energy users within the
schools were identified and quantified. From
this information, areas where energy was being
wasted were identified and ways of eliminating
waste were examined. If a reasonable payback and
a means to measure the payback were identified,
then it was included in the list of measures to
be presented for consideration; if payback was
high, or could not be effectively measured, then
that conservation measure was discarded.
After all energy conservation measure ideas were
gathered, they were presented to the school board
with a suggested method of payment, so the best
return on investment for the district could be
achieved. Also, a written guarantee was made
available, so the school district could feel
certain that in whatever conservation measures
selected, desired results would be achieved.
During the construction phase, special attention
was given to ensure classes would be disrupted as
little as possible and the work would be
completed on schedule.
After construction, the contractor monitored
savings results and has shown that this project,
which represented an investment of well over a
million dollars, will provide payback on time, or
in advance, of the original estimate.
Citation
Nooner, D. (1989). Energy Management Retrofit for Arlington Independent School District. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6578.