Revise Your Plans
by Merry Rankin, director of sustainability
Did you know that each building on campus has its own unique energy usage plan? Did you also know that the design of these plans is determined by the building occupants?
Just like a house or an apartment ... no two are alike. As well, the needs of the occupants can also be very different. This is no different for our campus buildings. And with that in mind, each building's energy plan has been put into place in order to consider both the idiosyncrasies of the building and its occupants.
What often times happens is that once a plan is put into place, it can be easy to forget to review it regularly and see if any adjustments can and should be made. For building plans, reviewing things such as temperature setting, occupancy levels, and occupancy usage can be very significant when creating an energy usage plan that also maximizes energy savings. For example adjusting a winter temperature setting just one degree lower can save up to 10% in heating costs.
Ensuring your building's energy plan is current and efficient is easy, just follow these steps:
- Find your current energy plan at: www.fpm.iastate.edu/utilities/bldg_energy_plans/default.asp.
- University standard settings are 68 degrees during winter months and 74 during winter months from 7am - 6pm M-F. If your building has information that varies from these standard settings, it was implemented through building occupant request.
- Within your building's plan, click on the various system names to learn more about how those systems operate in your building.
- For additional questions about your building's plans or to review plan adjustment options (which can be even more energy efficient than the standard settings), contact Clark Thompson with FP&M (cthompso@iastate.edu or 294-9812). Clark and FP&M staff will work with you to allow trial periods of efficient settings as well as permanent adjustments.
And don't stop at your campus building, review your home energy plan and see what efficiency opportunities you have at home as well. Here are some great tools to get you started made available by the City of Ames www.cityofames.org/ElectricWeb/EnergyGuy/Default.htm.
Over the next couple of weeks, take a minute and review your building plans (and make sure to put a note on your calendar for another review next semester). A little revision can make a significant impact.
