United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Administration and
Resource Management
(3204)
EPA202-N-99-001
January 1999
www.epa.gov/consrv-news
mission of the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is
to protect human
health and to safe-
guard the natural
environment—air,
water, and land—upon
which life depends.
Welcome!
Welcome to the first edition of Greening EPA, formerly Conservation News. We have changed
the name and changed the look of our newsletter to more accurately reflect our mission. As
EPA employees, we are responsible not only for keeping EPA facilities operating smoothly, but
for ensuring the facilities are operating in a manner that is consistent with EPA's mission. This
means we should always strive to reduce the adverse environmental impacts associated with
facility operation by increasing energy efficiency, using recycled-content products, switching to
renewable energy sources, and implementing other environmentally friendly activities.
This premiere issue of Greening EPA is a special edition focusing on recent environmental
successes by the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Using an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), NVFEL is demonstrating for the rest of
us how to improve a facility's environmental performance and save money. Many of the bene-
fits achieved by NVFEL can be applied elsewhere. I hope you find the information interesting.
—Phil Wirdzek, FMSD
ESPC Saving Energy and Money at NVFEL
EPA's National Vehicle
and Fuel Emissions
Laboratory (NVFEL),
located in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, is part of the
Office of Air and Radiation
and is charged with imple-
menting the Clean Air Act.
Built in 1970, NVFEL is a
1 35,000-square-foot com-
plex consisting of one main
high bay building, an office
building, and numerous
temporary trailers. The pri-
mary function of this facility
is to test mobile sources of
pollution (e.g., cars, trucks,
motorcycles, boats) to deter-
mine compliance with
national standards. New
transportation technologies
also are tested for their
emissions potential.
NVFEL incurs annua uti -
ity costs of $1.08 million
(1993 through 1995 aver-
ages) for electricity, natural
gas, and water, and an
additiona $350,000 for
repair and maintenance of
aging equipment. This
seemingly large energy con-
sumption is due in part to
the stringent conditions that
must be maintained in the
laboratory environment. Test
cells must be kept at tight-
tolerance temperatures
despite large fluxuations in
heat being produced by
changing the speed of the
test engines. The nature of
the test equipment requires
substantial airflow (50 air
changes per hour) to main-
tain indoor air quality.
To meet its mission to
protect the environment, EPA
is upgrading the facility's
physica plant to reduce
source emissions. An Energy
Savings Performance
Contract (ESPC) is being
used to finance and con-
struct the upgrade. The
ESPC will allow EPA to lever-
age the facility's existing util-
ity and operations budgets
to implement this capital-
intensive project.
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Motivation for
this Project
EPA initiated this project in
cooperation with the Depart-
ment of Energy's (DOE's)
Federal Energy Management
Program (FEMP) to optimize
the ESPC mechanism as a
means of achieving high-
energy efficiency, minimizing
power generation emissions,
attracting private capital
investment, and encouraging
utilization of advanced build-
ing system technologies and
concepts in the operations of
federal laboratories.
PROJECT GOALS AND
APPROACH
To reduce source emis-
sions, energy consump-
tion, and energy costs,
EPA set the following goals
for this ESPC:
• Exceed Federal Energy
Reduction Mandates as
prescribed by the Energy
Pol icy Act of 1992
(EPAct) and Executive
Order 12902, which
require federal facilities
to reduce their energy
use by 30 percent by
2005, relative to a 1 985
baseline.
• Reduce power plant
source emissions.
• Optimize energy cost
savings.
• Restore aging and obso-
lete infrastructure.
• Eliminate chlorofluoro-
carbons (CFCs).
• Minimize wasted energy.
• Maximize use of waste
energy streams.
• Use renewable energy
technologies.
The project will employ a
two-pronged approach.
Initially, the project team will
focus on reducing the amount
of energy consumed at NVFEL,
and then will work on maxi-
mizing the efficiency of the
equipment generating the
energy. To optimize energy
cost savings, the team will
evaluate an extensive list of
possible energy conservation
measures (ECMs), weigh the
merits of certain combina-
tions of ECMs, calculate the
effect of any relevant rebate
programs or more favorable
rate structures, and determine
the optimal energy conser-
vation system (ECS). Quick
payback measures will be
used to support the costs of
longer payback measures,
resulting in a comprehensive
project that addresses energy
and water consumption for
the entire facility. A new
1,000-point energy man-
agement system will track the
building's energy-consuming
equipment, monitor alarms,
and interact with the facility
security and fire systems.
IMPROVEMENTS IN
VENTILATION
The team began the pro-
ject by evaluating the
potential reductions in
energy consumption outside
of the process loads. The
largest energy cost to EPA in
this facility is operating existing
Bottom Line
Savings
Once fully implemented, the
project will reduce NVFEL's
energy consumption by an an-
ticipated 66 percent to 193,460
Btu/sf, lower energy costs by
74 percent to approximately
$268,000, and reduce water
consumption by 24 million gal-
lons, an 80 percent decrease.
The building's heating and
cooling infrastructure will be
completely replaced to improve
performance and lower main-
tenance. This comprehensive
approach to energy conserva-
tion will exceed all federal
energy savings guidelines and
bring the facility into the 21st
century with strong environ-
mental performance.
air handling units (AHUs) at
full ventilation air flows. A
review of the HVAC systems
has indicated more than 2
cubic feet per minute (cfm)
of ventilation air is provided
per square foot to the facili-
ty. (A typical office environ-
ment might have 0.2 cfm
per square foot (sf), and a
typica manufacturing facility
might use 0.5 cfm/sf.) Under
the present configuration,
each air handling unit cools,
dehumidifies, humidifies,
and reheats the air supply to
meet the facility's space
conditioning requirements.
New direct digital controls,
cooling equipment, and
reconfigured AHUs will
allow 80 percent return air
in the test facilities. As a
result, NVFEL will use 22
percent less air flow and 60
percent less outside air.
Replacing the AHUs will
incorporate a number of
energy saving technologies.
Thirty-four AHUs will be
replaced, six of which
already mix return air with
outside air. Twenty-four of
the new units will incorpo-
rate a return air component,
as opposed to the 1 00-per-
cent outside air configura-
tion now used. These units
will use a design that decou-
ples the outside air load and
conditions it separately. This
will minimize the amount of
energy required for dehu-
midification and reheating in
the summer, and heating,
humidifying, and reheating
in the winter.
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o
Sponsors
EPA pursued the comprehen-
sive HVAC retrofit to demon-
strate and support the systems
integration objectives of the
Advanced Building Systems
Integration Consortium. This
organization is sponsored by
the National Science Foun-
dation Industry/University
Cooperative Research Con-
sortium at the Center for
Building Performance and
Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Penn-
sylvania. EPA, DOE, other
federal agencies, and major
private corporations partici-
pate in this consortium.
Several air-moving
devices were evaluated. Plug
fans were selected because
they offer the highest effi-
ciencies at the lowest sound
criteria. Placing the fans and
motors in the air stream will
assure that the fan motor
energy adds to the air
stream and assists in reheat-
ing the air, reducing the
reheat coi load. This load,
if placed in a blow-through
configuration, would add to
the AHU coo ing load. The
AHUs also will use indirect
evaporative coo ing to pre-
treat the outside air and
lower the site cooling
requirements. Evaporative
coo ing for this facility is
effective due to the high
return air temperatures that
are a byproduct of the labo-
ratory process. This technol-
ogy will remove an additional
1 20 tons of coo ing from
the physical plant load. In
offices and preparation
rooms, variable air volume
systems will be installed to
reduce fan energy consump-
tion. Premium efficiency
motors will be installed on
all new equipment and on
the remaining exhaust fans.
Four AHUs will remain
1 00-percent outside air units
due to the requirements of
the facility. For these units,
the exhaust air for the space
will be cycled through enthalpy
recovery sections to recover
up to 80 percent of the total
energy in the air stream.
Indirect evaporative coolers
also will be installed on
these units to pretreat the air
before cooling it with energy
from the central plant. The
cooling coils will use dew
point controllers to measure
and control the amount of
cooling for dehumidification,
which will minimize the
amount of reheating.
To further reduce the
energy wasted in air-condi-
tioning unoccupied spaces,
the team will use night set-
back controls and variable
air volume technology at the
supply diffusers, and reset
the water temperatures. The
new control strategy will
eliminate the energy demands
of over dehumidifying and
then rehumidifying the air.
This project will minimize
energy waste between the
points of combustion and
the points of exhaust by
increasing the efficiency of
the air-conditioning process
and limiting the amount of
building exhaust air. This will
lower the amount of waste
exhaust air by approximately
75 percent. The team will
convert once-through water
cooling systems to cooling
recirculation systems (e.g.,
air compressors, engine
radiators, and process
chillers). Steam reheat coils
that are presently leaking
raw steam into the spaces
(requiring additiona dehu-
midification) will be replaced
with new AHUs.
A MORE EFFICIENT
HEATING AND COOLING
PLANT
The existing heating and
cooling plant will be
replaced and upgraded
with highly efficient equip-
ment. Three existing 1,000-
ton CFC-based electric
chillers, cooling towers,
pumps, and ancillary equip-
ment will be decommis-
sioned. The new chilled
water plant will consist of
900 tons of high-efficiency,
double-effect chiller/heaters,
which do not use CFC or
HCFC refrigerants. The new
chiller/heaters will come
equipped with units to
recover waste heat from the
condensers in the cooling
cycle. The chiller/heaters will
recover up to 25 percent of
the input energy from the
condenser water stream.
This water will be used for
the reheat coi loop feeding
the AHUs. A new fuel cell
will contribute its entire ther-
mal output to feed the
reheat coi loads.
The existing chemica
water treatment system will
be replaced with an ozone
water treatment system that
will reduce the amount of
blow down water, eliminate
the need to chemically treat
the water, and provide a
modest increase in chiller
plant efficiency due to reduced
scaling of the tube bundle.
The chiller transformers will
be decommissioned with the
remova of the three chillers.
These units have I2R losses,
as well as idle losses, that
will be removed from the
system. Pumping energy will
be conserved by matching
the pumps to the pumping
load. Wasted energy will be
reduced from oversized pumps
with closed balancing valves
by trimming the impellers to
maximize efficiency.
The existing 700 HP boil-
ers also will be removed
from the site. The team will
replace oversized boilers at
the central plant with new
high-efficiency condensing
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boilers incrementally sized to
operate at the most efficient
operation. The 35 psi steam
plant and all steam equipment
will be removed, and the
heating system will be con-
verted to hot water. During
the cooling season, the base
reheating load will be serviced
by energy recovery hot water
from the chiller/heater and
the waste heat from the fuel
cell. Any remaining reheat
load will be provided by a
series of high-efficiency (93
percent) condensing boilers.
During the heating sea-
son, the chiller/heaters will
perform the majority of the
heating at a rated efficiency
of 85 to 93 percent. The
high-efficiency condensing
boilers also can operate
during heating days. Existing
domestic water heaters that
use steam for heating will be
replaced with high-efficiency
gas-fired units. The energy-
efficient measures in the
central plant will raise the
heating C0p to 78 percent
from 37 percent. The new
chiller/heaters and supple-
mental boilers are high-
efficiency units, equipped
with low NOx burners that
will further reduce source
emissions.
A natural gas fuel cell
will be installed to provide
both base load power and
emergency backup for the
facility. The phosphoric acid
fuel cell, which will consume
natural gas, will generate
200 kW of power for the
site. This fuel cell also will
provide heating water for
the reheat water loop serv-
ing the AHUs. This clean
power is ideal for the com-
puter room electrical
requirements. The applica-
tion of the fuel cell at NVFEL
is truly a cogeneration appli-
cation since the entire ther-
mal load will be used during
the heating and cooling sea-
sons. This technology has a
proven track record for reli-
ability, and it produces clean
power and heat efficiently
and inexpensively.
By integrating the heat-
ing and cooling plant, EPA
will recover a high degree of
energy that would have other-
wise been exhausted in cool-
ing towers or radiators. Energy
that is presently exhausted
out of the building either will
be reconditioned and recir-
culated or recovered from
the exhaust air via total
energy recovery devices.
In addition to minimizing
energy consumption, EPA
will replace devices that use
domestic water for once-
through cooling. New air
cooled condensers and fluid
coolers will be installed on
the process chillers, air com-
pressors, and engine radia-
tors to eliminate the use of
once-through cooling. This
will result in a water savings
of 24 million gallons annually.
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
(3204)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
EPA wishes to acknow-
ledge the work of its
expert project team in-
cluding Steve Dorer,
Dick Lawrence, Don
Pausell, Bill Wise, Tom
Darner, Lance
Swanhorst, and Phil
Wirdzek. Additional
technical support was
provided through an
interagency agreement
with NREL and federal
contracts with Booz,
Allen & Hamilton and
Good Associates.
) Printed on paper that contains at least 30 percent postconsumer fiber.
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