Case Study: Energy Efficiency Review in the Biology Department

Despite a proactive approach to energy reduction from the Biology Operations Management Team, it remained one of the highest energy-using departments. The building’s energy usage, coupled with some uncertainty about usage patterns and behaviours within the building, prompted a comprehensive energy review.

Objective

The primary objective of the review in the Biology Department was to identify and implement coordinated strategies to reduce energy consumption and associated costs. The ultimate goal was to enhance operational efficiency while maintaining the necessary conditions for research and teaching activities.

Implementation

An initial meeting between DTEF colleagues, the Head of Biology, and members of the Biology Operations Management team involved a walkthrough of the department. The aim was to understand how the building was used and maintained and to review specific departmental energy usage data. It provided all stakeholders with a joint understanding of the department's needs and operational activities, and also enabled the identification of collective opportunities for improving energy efficiency. 

Subsequently, a night time baseline review identified equipment that could be switched off to reduce the department's baseline energy demand. Several key energy-related challenges and inefficiencies were identified:

• Ventilation and Heating Systems: Opportunities to adjust the timing setpoints to reduce energy usage during non-operating hours while maintaining necessary conditions during operating hours.
• High-Energy Using Chiller: Investigating the potential removal of a chiller used solely for a single piece of equipment.
• Fume Cupboards: Many fume cupboard hoods were not fully closed when in use, wasting energy through unnecessary extract ventilation.
• Underutilised Equipment: Computers, monitors, lights, and other equipment were left on even when not in use.
• Heating Systems: Some systems were not operating correctly (but remained unreported), leading to increased energy usage. If corrected, it would also improve working conditions for building users.
• Air-Conditioning: Specific instances were identified where air-conditioning was not being used efficiently.

These inefficiencies not only increased energy usage and costs but also affected the environmental conditions within the department.

The review and implementation phases resulted in smooth identification, encountering no significant challenges, largely due to the collaboration and willingness of the Head of Department and other building users.

Results

Given the complexity and size of the department buildings, it is challenging to directly measure specific energy reductions from each individual change. However, total energy usage will be monitored and compared against previous usage to assess overall improvements.

The review has immediately resulted in the following tangible benefits and positive outcomes:

• Identification of energy savings and other improvement opportunities.
• Building users more aware of energy usage quantities to achieve buy-in to the energy saving

Future plans

An action plan has been developed to implement the many identified opportunities. DTEF will provide the department with access to energy data, as well as periodic analysis and reporting on energy savings. Future collaborative reviews will continue to identify further opportunities.

The Biology department is planning a sustainability event to educate and inform building users on the use of high energy equipment, work toward finding solutions to reduce the number of units and share this information more widely.

To ensure long-term sustainability, both physical technical changes and behavioural changes are being rolled out. Further new initiatives based on the lessons learned will include informational stickers for fume cabinets and ultra-low temperature freezers. A review, encouraging rationalisation or replacement of fridges, freezers and ULT freezers will be undertaken, with a continued review of meter readings of older units.

Conclusion

Key lessons learned from this review include the importance of obtaining buy-in and cooperation from departmental managers and key operational staff, and the need to present energy data in a tangible way to departments.

The review highlighted significant opportunities for improvement, which through collaborative efforts and continuous monitoring, the department aims to sustain, with a goal to expand the program to other areas within the University.