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Lighting consumes 25 to 30 percent of the electricity in classroom and office buildings and is a high priority for efficiency upgrades. To date, 90 percent of the overhead lighting on campus has been converted from inefficient T-12 light tubes with magnetic ballasts to smaller diameter T-8 or T-5 light tubes with electronic ballasts. The payback is typically less than five years. Ninety percent of building mechanical rooms have been equipped with timers to turn off the lights. Forty percent of common spaces, such as restrooms, break rooms, and conference rooms, contain occupancy sensors.

Standard, screw-in incandescent lights bulbs have been eliminated in all campus buildings and desk lamps. They were replaced with more than 4,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs that use only one-quarter of the electricity and last many times longer. The next generation of lighting technology, known as LED for light emitting diodes, is currently being tested in multiple locations.

Resources:
Energy Efficient Lighting Policy
CFL Bulb Disposal Instructions

Many current and future energy efficiency improvements are focused on building automation system controls, operating protocols, and individual behaviors. A strategic demand-side energy management plan completed in 2009 evaluated and modeled energy performance in 20 existing buildings. It then extrapolated this analysis to the 86 largest buildings on campus that represent 85 percent of campus energy use. In addition to existing conditions, multiple energy conservation measures were also modeled in these 20 buildings. The cost to implement these measures and the potential energy savings can now be estimated for the entire campus.

With today’s complex building automation systems, performance improvements are often as likely to come from tweaking the software as from turning a wrench. Regular recalibration of equipment and systems, broader temperature ranges that correspond with the seasons, setting back air handling systems when buildings are unoccupied, and reprogramming building automation systems can result in major savings.

Resources:
Energy Policy
2010 Strategic Energy and Water Plan
2009 Strategic Energy and Water Plan
2008 Strategic Energy and Water Plan
2007 Strategic Energy and Water Plan
Interactive map of energy conservation features on campus

Links:
UNC Energy Management - http://save-energy.unc.edu

Real time steam and chilled water metering in virtually every building on campus will soon be joined by real time electric metering. Knowing how much of each type of energy each building consumes, and when, enables more accurate billing, alerts operators to equipment problems, and provides the potential to analyze the effectiveness of energy conservation efforts. UNC will soon have one of the largest databases of building performance and energy data in the world.

Real time metering also makes it possible to share consumption data with building occupants and influence their behavior. Developing building “dashboards” to report real time energy consumption in all buildings with automated metering is currently underway.

Resources:
Morrison Residence Hall Building Dashboard
Real-time Steam Data (available only to campus users)

Promoting responsible energy consumption is a cornerstone of UNC's energy conservation program. To learn more about these efforts, please visit the Behavior Change page.