This Summer break, Green U and Facilities Management are inviting all faculty and staff to support UM’s Energy Conservation Initiative. With your support, the University can help reduce its carbon footprint. Prior to leaving on break, please take the following energy-saving measures: • Turn off all lights, PCs, Office equipment and Electronics. This includes equipment chargers, copy machines and all other personal electronics. • For Personal and office refrigerators: clean out contents, defrost and unplug prior to the break period. • Review all offices, classrooms, labs, gyms, locker rooms, media centers, restrooms, cafeterias, kitchens and break rooms, and report to Facilities Customer Service for temperature adjustment. • Shut the fume hood sash in labs. • Ensure all exterior doors and windows are properly closed. • Submit any requests for facility-related repairs on items that may impact energy usage to Facilities Management. If your department has any continuity-of-service needs, and you are not sure exactly what to do, PLEASE CALL Facilities Management at 305-284-8282./ Medical: 305-243-6375
We all know that by teleworking we are offsetting our commute pollution. However, working from home has its own carbon footprint. Here are five tips to make your remote work life greener: Minimize paper usage, or use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified 30% recycled paper. Choose a laptop rather than a PC, and set it to start sleep mode after 10 minutes or less of inactivity. Use a smart strip to turn off all appliances at once, and visit your FPL Account Energy Manager for more tips. Apply to FPL Solar Together to run on solar energy without installing panels. Use the time you gained not commuting to take care of your health, the ones around you, and the planet. Spend more time planting in the garden, on your balcony, or cooking fresh food. There are so many ways to conserve water too. SImply follow Miami Dade County recommendations. Learn more.
tele
2023 Chiller and HVAC Units Energy Conservation The University department of facilities management has developed an initiative to conserve energy by reducing the run times of our campus chilled water utility plants and increasing our supply chilled water temperature, from 42 to 46 degrees. By doing this, we will not have to run as many machines fully loaded during peak hours, saving energy and costs. Housing & Residence Life innovative energy efficiency technology The app-based system uses occupancy sensors and intelligent thermostats to adjust a room’s temperature according to occupancy, eliminating the unnecessary heating and cooling of empty rooms. By intelligently controlling the temperature and plug loads in unoccupied rooms, this energy management system allows a residence hall to decrease equipment runtime and energy usage without a negative impact to occupant comfort. CO2 Scrubbers Heat trapping window film at Mahoney Pearson Heat Trapping Windows at the Wellness Center from ECO Agency Energy Conservation measures on the Coral Gables campus - In collaboration with UM IT, Facilities and Operations offers an IT energy saving program where all desktop computers are set on sleep mode. Extended to all PCs in all divisions of the main campus, this could save up to 15% of our energy consumption.
We have also reduced the amount of run times on most of our building ac systems by developing a detailed AC run schedules for each building. This will reduce the amount of run time for building systems when those buildings are unoccupied. Reducing run times will also reduce wear and tear on the mechanical equipment systems.
Available at Mahoney Pearson and Lakeside Village.
Learn more
Poor indoor air quality and high HVAC energy consumption is always a challenge for high traffic buildings. UM installed HLRs-CO2 scrubbers on each floor of the 60,000-ft2 wellness facility at the Don Soffer Clinical Research Center to scrub air of contaminants and reduce the amount of outside air ventilation required, saving 28% more energy than in regular units.
Another CO2 scrubber was installed in the Richter Library on the Coral Gables campus in 2018 allowing for substantial indoor air quality improvement and energy savings. Learn more
The university’s twin, seven story dormitory buildings achieved higher energy savings with the installation of heat trapping window film. The film also improve safety by reducing shattering in case a window breaks, and enhance comfort by reducing heat and glare. The University enjoys an estimated $6,500 in savings annually because of the increased energy efficiency of the Pearson and Mahoney residential college buildings. Learn more
Reducing electrical consumption has been our focus over the past 3 years. Significant energy conservation
improvements and activities during this period have included the following:
- Since 2016, the University passed a LED lighting mandate to phase out incandescent and CFL bulbs.
- Improved management of our Utility Plants CHW loop control strategies and set points to reduce the cost of Chilled Water production.
- Refrigerants upgrades to improve our chilled water loop system performance.
- Interior Lighting retrofit from T12 to T8 lamps with electronic ballast.
- Exterior LED lighting retrofits reducing wattage.
- Occupancy sensors in all buildings.
- BACnet EMS installation.
- Utility Plants upgrade of chiller to high performance energy efficient units to address additional load.
- High Efficiency Motor replacements.
- Campus wide efficiency setback of thermostats during campus break.
- Establishment of a campus Wide Set point of 74 Deg (+/- 1.5)
- On-going routine and preventive maintenance of building mechanical systems equipment to maximize
their efficiency.
- Consolidate off period activities into selected energy efficient buildings so less efficient buildings can be set to unoccupied status.
- Load shifting to off peak hours
Pilot Program: IT Energy Savings in collaboration with the EPA, UM IT and Facilities Management
Putting our computers on sleeping mode, provided that Cyber Security rules are thoroughly respected, could save UM a lot of energy and reduce our carbon footprint.
General Energy conservation tips 1. Set computer on sleep mode (here ). 8. Shut the fume hood sash in labs. Signs toolkit:
2. Turn electronics off on weekends to save energy.
3. If possible, use natural day lighting and adjust window blinds accordingly.
4. Turn off the lights when you leave.
5. Set your AC thermostat on 74° F (default temp. for controlled units on campus).
6. Set your AC unit on 78° F when you leave your space for the day.
7. Support this effort by reporting any energy or water waste to your Facilities Customer Service Department.
9. Ensure all exterior doors and windows are properly closed. Contact Facilities Management with any issues that require corrective action.
10. Take the stairs instead of the elevator
11. Follow the recommendations of our Summer and Winter Break Energy Conservation Alerts
12. Get rid of mini fridges or share with a neighbor.
13. Defrost refrigerators once a year.
14. Consider using a laptop, it uses 75% less energy than desktops.
15. Ask Facilities to install LED lighting in your area is still using incandescent bulbs or CFLs.
16. Verify that your copier is on Saving mode.
- Download the Turn off the light stickers, print them on 5167 labels
- Download the Put your PC on Sleep Mode, print them on 5167 labels
- Download the Natural Daylight stickers, print them on 5163 labels
- Dowmload the Close the blinds stickers, print them on 5163 labels
- Download the Shut the Sash stickers, print them on 5163 labels.
***** This Winter break, the Office of Sustainability and the Student Government ECO Agency are inviting all faculty, staff and students to support UM’s Energy Conservation Program. With your support, the University can reduce its carbon footprint during this semester break. Prior to leaving for the break, please take the following energy-saving measures: If your department has any continuity-of-service needs, please call Facilities & Operations by Tuesday, December 10, at 305-284-8282 (Coral Gables); 305-421-4815 (RSMAS) or Submit a Service Request online // 305-243-6375 (Medical campus) or visit Miller School of Medicine Service Request online.