Building Equipment

Replacing or improving building equipment is often the most effective way to reduce energy consumption.  New facilities are already constructed to meet LEED silver certification or higher.  LEED facilities implement a number of strategies to directly impact and improve energy efficiency and consumption, including:

• Building envelope, including energy efficient windows, roofs and doors;
• State of the art HVACs, chillers, air handlers and boilers;
• Pumps, motors and variable speed drives;
• Building management systems to monitor and regulate energy usage; and
• Energy efficient lighting. 

Low and No Cost Initiatives

Focusing on the office buildings that consume the most energy, DGS is implementing initiatives to reduce energy consumption with minimal cost to the District. These initiatives include: 

1. Retrofit lighting systems – Energy efficient lighting systems, which reduce energy consumption and are relatively low-cost to implement;
2. De-lamp light fixtures– Excess light bulbs and fixtures and other unnecessary lighting systems have been removed, which reduces energy consumption while maintaining customer comfort;
3. Lower hot water set points– Reducing the temperature of hot water in District buildings, has reduced electricity and/or natural gas consumption; and
4. Reduce system operational hours– Turning off building systems such as lights, HVAC and other systems during non-working hours has reduced consumption without impacting customer service.

These simple initiatives resulted in an average of 5.7% reduction in the energy consumption in select facilities during the second half of Fiscal Year 2009.

Energy Audits

In 2010, the District was granted Federal Stimulus dollars to conduct energy audits of District facilities.  The results of energy audits will then be used to inform the District's future investments and energy reduction strategies.