A half-million dollar grant from a major corporation will boost the University of Houston’s energy conservation efforts and reduce its $13-million-a-year electric and gas bill.

UH recently received a $534,000 grant from CenterPoint Energy to install a computer-operated energy management control system in several campus buildings such as the College of Optometry and Science and Research Building 1, according to Dave Irvin, associate vice president of plant operations.

The system, which already is in many campus buildings, will save about 1 million kilowatts hours and $50,000 in utility cost each year. The system also will allow Plant Operations to adjust the temperature and humidity in classrooms and offices more quickly. Irvin said the university plans to have the new system in place in many other buildings by the end of summer 2005.

The company gave the grant to UH in recognition of another energy conservation project – the replacement of two 44-year-old central utility plant chillers that provide chilled water for campus air-conditioning.

“Two of the five campus chillers are energy inefficient by today’s standards,” Irvin explained. They use coolants that the EPA is phasing out. We can’t get parts for them. That’s why we decided to replace them.”

This $8.5 million undertaking would increase the university’s capacity to provide cooling for new buildings such as the Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex (SERCC) and others that may be constructed in the next 15 years for less money and using less energy, according to Irvin.

In 1980, UH began its conservation efforts, which resulted in a 20-percent reduction in energy usage and a 25-percent financial savings, according to Irvin. UH officials plan to reduce the university’s total energy usage by an additional one percent over the next five years.

Francine Parker
fparker@central.uh.edu