VC KBTU Consumption per SF

Valencia College has been successful with reducing energy consumption through a focus of high performance building construction. Energy-efficient retrofits and incorporating behavioral changes. Since 2008 using these different strategies the College has reduced its KBTU per square foot by 49%.

KBTU Per Square Foot Fiscal Years 2004 – 2016

Year

2004-2005

2005-2006

2006-2007

2007-2008

2008-2009

2009-2010

2010-2011

2011-2012

2012-2013

2013-2014

2014-2015

2015-2016

Total KBTU

136,138

149,245

145,574

151,639

149,784

150,432

128,048

109,489

107,502

107,910

107,489

105,384

Total SqFt

1,609,842

1,565,336

1,561,591

1,564,797

1,662,690

1,768,858

1,779,341

1,779,341

2,086,393

2,145,410

2,145,410

2,145,472

MBTU/SqFt

0.0846

0.0953

0.0932

0.0969

0.0901

0.0850

0.0720

0.0615

0.0515

0.0503

0.0501

0.0491

KBTU/Sq/Ft

84.57

95.34

93.22

96.91

90.09

85.04

71.96

61.53

51.53

50.30

50.10

49.12

In 2006, Valencia made a commitment to new construction standards to include LEED Silver equivalent or above certification, High Efficiency Chiller Plants, Building Automation and Lighting Control Systems, Retro-commissioning and Upgrades. Following our new construction guidelines, the College was awarded with six LEED Gold equivalent buildings and two LEED Silver equivalent retrofit projects.

After the first high-efficiency chiller plant was installed, there was a significant increase in water consumption. The local utility company informed the college that a 50% increase in water charges would occur over the next five years. Since the cooling towers are the largest consumers of water, six different systems were evaluated over the course of a year. A new technology water-treatment system using high cycles and minimal blowdown was selected and implemented at the West Campus. The billed-water savings were enormous. The following study shows water consumption before and after installation. Since implementation Valencia West Campus has saved approximately 40 million gallons of billed water. Because of these results the system has been implemented college-wide with billed water savings of approximately 20 million gallons per year. Another caveat of this system is Legionella test results at all locations are undetected.