Date: 5 April 2000

To: The Campus Advisory Committee on Environmental Concerns (CACEC)
The Interim Master Plan Committee
Russell Osgood, James Swartz, Frank Thomas, Jonathan Brand

From: Grinnell visitors to the Iowa Energy Center's Energy Resource Station, 30 March 2000
(Mike Burt, Vince Eckhart, Matt Ewing, Cecilia Knight, and Matt Trager)

Re: The Iowa Energy Center's potential to inform Grinnell's energy strategies

This memo reports a highly informative fact-finding trip made by representatives of the CACEC.

The Iowa Energy Center (IEC) clearly could help Grinnell implement energy conservation and alternative energy strategies as the college maintains, upgrades, and expands its facilities. Attention to these environment-saving (and often cost-saving) strategies would be in accord with Grinnell's commitment to social responsibility and environmental sustainability.

The Iowa Energy Center (in Ames, affiliated with ISU) functions to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy applications in Iowa, with the objective of reducing the state's dependence on energy sources outside the state. In pursuit of this mission, it created the Energy Resource Station (ERS), a research and demonstration facility at the Des Moines Area Community College campus in Ankeny. The ERS evaluates building energy systems (with on-site and remote experiments), transfers information to energy planners and users, and trains energy professionals. The ERS is the only public facility of its kind in the country.

On Thursday, 30 March, five of us spent the morning at the ERS, having arranged an appointment with Curt Klaassen, Director of the ERS, and Floyd Barwig, Director of the IEC. Curt gave us a tour of the facility, tailoring the tour to Grinnell's situation. On the tour he made presentations on conservation strategies in insulation, glazing, lighting design, wind energy, variable-frequency drive control systems, and geothermal heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.

After the tour, we asked Curt to discuss specific energy conservation strategies that may be applicable in Grinnell's Master Planning process. (Vince Eckhart had given him in advance some general [non-confidential] information about Grinnell's current and proposed future energy needs.) At this preliminary discussion, Mr. Klaassen recommended that the college and its consultants:

(1) consider using high-efficiency water boilers to heat some individual buildings, in lieu of expanding the use of much less efficient steam boilers at a central energy plant (buildings equipped this way must have a supply of natural gas);

(2) continue to use high-efficiency chillers to cool the main part of campus from a central location, using careful life-cycle costing to evaluate which kinds of new units to install;

(3) consider installing closed-loop, geothermal heat pumps to heat and cool peripheral buildings of modest dimensions, such as the Welcome Center and dormitories (a Grinnell contractor, Latcham Enterprises, specializes in designing and building such systems);

(4) apply day-lighting liberally in new construction, to reduce energy needs and improve employee and visitor well-being (applied successfully, for example, in Central College's new Student Center);

(5) in any central heating and cooling plant, consider the potential for co-generation of electricity with heating and cooling capacity (though Grinnell's needs are on the small end of the range where co-generation tends to be recommended);

(6) consider using alternative fuels for boilers (e.g. garbage, or by-products [e.g., cobs] from the DeKalb corn-processing plant);

(7) consider installing variable-frequency drives on (many if not all of) the motors that regulate building HVAC systems;

(8) consider wind supplementation of electricity needs; and

(9) consider how the IEC's grants program (which supports innovative energy strategies) and Alternative Energy Revolving Loan Program (which provides matching funds in the form of 0%-interest loans for alternative-energy projects) could facilitate energy innovation at the college.

We came away from the visit very impressed by the ERS, by Curt Klaassen's knowledge and eagerness to help, and by the potential for the IEC and the ERS to help Grinnell reduce the amount, cost, and environmental impact of the energy it uses. We strongly recommend that consultants, fund-raisers, architects, engineers, control-system personnel, building committees, and contractors take advantage of this free state service. (The ERS will even consider using its own funds to carry out certain analyses.) It would be highly appropriate to consult the IEC during all phases of each construction project at Grinnell.

Floyd Barwig, Director Curtis Klaassen, Director
Iowa Energy Center Energy Resource Station
2521 Elmwood Dr., Suite 124 2006 S. Ankeny Blvd.
Ames, IA 50010-8263 Ankeny, IA 50021
515-294-8819 515-966-7055
energy@iastate.edu curtk@energy.iastate.edu
www.energy.iastate.edu