Here at NNB, we work to the steady hum of the MIT and Kendall Square ventilation systems.
So, we took great interest in the factoid that emerged during yesterday’s announcement of the MIT energy efficiency collaboration with the local utility NStar: Sometimes the fans don’t need to be working so hard.
As part of the effort, engineers will be trying to make fans all over campus more efficient. Which means they will be quieter.
Good news for us. But, the larger story is that MIT will be working with the utilities to cut its electricity usage by 15 percent over the next three years. The school’s engineers hope the program will reduce energy use by 34 million kilowatt-hours, which MIT says equates to the energy used by 4,500 Massachusetts homes each year.
Electrician Bill Harrell prepares a new fixture
A full half of the reduction will come from changes in lighting systems said Peter Cooper, the school’s manager of utility planning. During a tour of efforts at MIT’s Hayden Library, contractors were taking out florescent tubes in the stacks and in installing new, energy efficiency lighting.
Ventilation is a tougher, Cooper said.
A significant amount of the electricity reduction will come from modernizing the HVAC systems. MIT will put in variable-speed drives in the motors that run the air handling systems and will install a sensor system from Aircuity to monitor air humidity and carbon dioxide level, which indicates how many people are in a room.
That data, which will be fed to the Carrier building energy management system, will help determine how much conditioned air needs to be moved around. Typically, HVAC systems are designed for maximum room occupancy and run at the same rate all day and night. With the air data, the building management system can be programmed to slow down at night or to reduce the amount of air that gets pulled in if, for example, it’s very humid outside.
Yes!
To make that point, Cooper took a group of reporters up to the library roof. Outside, sleek new solar panels were doing their job on unusually hot spring day.
Inside the 60-year-old vents looked, well, old school.
For more on the system MIT will use in the library, see the contractor website at Aircuity.
For more on the event and more photos, see CNET, MIT’s announcement or the school “”https://web.mit.edu/mitei/“>Energy Initiative” site.