QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS| ENERGY CONSERVATION INCENTIVE PILOT PROGRAM INFO | ||
| QUESTIONS & ANSWERS | ||
| 1 | How were the Baselines established? | |
| A facility may have one or more utility services (electricity, natural gas, and/or steam). For each facility, we determined what utility services it has and if we had good metering data for it's utilities for the full FY02 period (July 2001 thru June 2002). There are some buildings where one or more of the utilities have no metering, so those particular utilities could not be included in the ECIP. In addition, we reviewed the reliabilty of the existing metering - looking for cases the readings have not been consistent, indicating a suspect meter - and those particular utilities could not be included in the ECIP. For the utilities which remained, the Baselines were established from the utility energy records for the FY02 period. We then reviewed which buildings had chiller equipment which served the campus chilled water loop rather than just the building. We do not have metering records on the chillers (most have no meters), so the affected building utilities (electrical and/or steam) are not indicative of just building energy use during the cooling season, so we showed a "zero" baseline for those utilities for the April/May thru October cooling season, effectively removing them from the ECIP for that period. | ||
| 2 | Why isn't my facility included in the ECIP? | |
| If your facility is not in the ECIP at all, it means that we do not have reliable metering on any of the utility services to that facility or, if we have added metering, it has not been in for the 12 months necessary to establish a baseline. In addition, only the main Pullman campus is included in the Pilot program. | ||
| 3 | If my facility isn't in the ECIP now when can I expect it to be added? | |
| We are proceeding to add metering or repair existing bad meters as funds are available. After we have good metering on a utility, it then takes 12 months to establish a usable Baseline, as energy usage on each utility varies monthly. Once a Baseline exists, we will add that utility to the ECIP. For instance, we installed new steam (condensate) meters on 20 facilities this last Spring, but those will not be added to the ECIP until the 12-month Baseline is finished in Spring 2003, providing there were no problems with the meters. | ||
| 4 | Why aren't all utilities included in the ECIP? | |
| We can only include utilities on which we have had reliable metering for the 12 month period necessary to develop a Baseline. In addition, if the utilities serve chillers or snow melt systems they are not incentivized during the months those systems operate as we currently do not have the metering necessary to allow those large loads to be differentiated from normal building loads. | ||
| 5 | How do I know which utilities in my facility are included in the ECIP? | |
| Currently, the two utilities that are in the ECIP are steam and electricity. Go to the Building Incentives link to see if your building has earned an incentive reward for those utilities. If there is no information for your building for steam or electricity it doesn't mean that your building doesn't have those utilities, but simply they are not included this time around. | ||
| 6 | I think we have other "utilities" such as chilled water, deionized water, etc. I don't see those on the Incentive list for our facility. | |
| We plan to add chilled water, deionized water, and other utilities to the ECIP as metering or other reliable usage data becomes available. | ||
| 7 | I'm just one person, what can I do to save energy? | |
| Please see the Energy Dept website for what actions you can do as an individual to help save energy http://facops.wsu.edu/individual_conservation.htm | ||
| 8 | Are there any more of those task lights you were giving away? | |
| Currently, we do not have any more of our free task lights and there isn't any plan to offer lights this year. However, your department can purchase task lighting at Staples, Office Depot or through Central Stores. | ||
| 9 | My department is working hard to save on energy. How do we get our reward money? | |
| The incentive money will be given to the VP or Dean of each Participant Group to be passed on down to the appropriate building occupants. | ||
| 10 | My department is not the major occupant of our facility, but we also are taking steps to save energy. How will we get rewarded? | |
| The ECIP flows the rewards through the major occupants for each facility. The major occupant is responsible for involving the other occupant groups in reducing energy usage and then sharing the rewards on a pre-determined basis with the other occupant groups. This may be done based on square footage allocations as developed by the Capital Planning and Development department Space Planning Group or some other mutually agreed basis. | ||
| 11 | I'm sure that the weather makes a big difference on energy usage. If the weather this year is much colder than during the Baseline period, it seems like the energy use would also be higher than the Baseline, even if our building groups do a good job of reducing energy use. | |
| Weather does make a significant difference in the energy use, particularly for steam and natural gas. We have developed a weather correction factor for each utility in a facility from past data. We then apply that factor to the energy use based on the difference between the average temperatures for the current month versus the Baseline weather for that month. This is not an exact science, but factors out weather effects as best we currently can. | ||
| 12 | I use task lighting more than my overhead lights, but I have a space heater, how do I know if it qualifys as energy saving or not? | |
| Any space heater you use at WSU should use 150 watts or less. Most space heaters with fans or multiple settings use 1,000-2,000 watts; these use a lot of energy and often result in over-loaded electrical circuits and other safety problems. The Energy Group is currently in the process of testing three types of space heater based on energy, safety and appearance. Once we have a recommendation, we will alert Central Stores and send an email to WSU Announcements. WSU Policies and Procedures state that only WSU-approved space heaters may be used in the facilities. |
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