blog 15

Last blog! This is a continuation of blog number fourteen. After a brief description of the technologies i will give a reasons section, essentially why i think those technologies should be implemented. This is where i will show all of my data. Here i can show that the daylight sensors reduce the current energy use by thirty three percent. I will also show that for the rooms they are in the occupancy sensors can reduce the energy use by twenty fiver percent. That’ll essentially be the whole report. Im glad I got the chance to do this project. It was really fun and very educational. I know that this is a field that i want to go into. Not necessarily school based or even green technology based, but building engineering in general. Of course i dont know what im going to go into in college. I will take intro to mechanical engineering and intro to electrical and computer engineering. So i could go any direction right now. But Im definetly glad that i took ap comp sci this year. It was awesome to be able to write an analysis script when i needed my data analysed. If i had to do that by hand i would still be working on it. Thanks to everybody who helped my during this project, you all super rock. alright, 250 words? close enough. dustin out. 

blog 14

Second to last day! I finished up my research paper and finished collecting the data for my report into usable form. Then i spent the day working on my report. Not much to report there. heh. puns. Im grasping at straws now because im done with my project and really don’t have anything left to do or say. I guess ill go over my report. So Its going to be a fairly short report, essentially outlining a few suggestions for the school and thats all. It’ll have a small introduction, something outlining the challenge and constraints. Then ill talk about retrofitting the school with technologies that are cheap enough to pay for themselves very quickly, and easy enough to install without ever interrupting classes (they could all be installed over the summer).  My suggestions are the following: daylight sensors throughout most of the school (only excluding the internal parts of the hallway, the bathrooms and any other rooms that don’t have windows.) and occupancy sensors in the rooms that are used infrequently.  These rooms are the offices of the principle and administrative staff. They also include the bathrooms, reading rooms, and the art room that has the kilns. Essentially its a big closet but its used very infrequently throughout the day so its a perfect candidate. I also propose an occupancy sensor in the conference room. 

blog 13

Today I made sure both models were all set, and collected data from both of them to use in my report. Then I worked on my report. I decided not to make a third energy model for the occupancy sensors. This is because the impact on each room may be significant, but the impact on the school as a whole is not huge. This is probably because the school is fairly small. In a bigger school with more internal rooms the occupancy sensors would have a similar impact as the daylight sensors do, except the occupancy sensors would affect the internal rooms, those not affected by daylighting sensors. In the memorial school, the daylight sensors reduce the energy use by thirty three percent, and the occupancy sensors reduce the usage by twenty five percent. assuming that the majority of the time that the room is occupied is during the day, the occupancy sensors have a barely any effect on the perimeter rooms that can be day lit. Also in the elementary school where all the classrooms are constantly in use the occupancy sensors have no effect on classrooms. Since the majority of the school is classrooms, occupancy sensors are not very effective. They would be more effective in a bigger highs school where there are more internal rooms and the classrooms are used only intermittently throughout the day. 

blog 12

Today I finished the daylighting model and the analysis of the data logger data.  The daylighting model took a lot longer than I thought to finish. The results were great though. The daylighting model uses about 75% of the energy as the baseline model.  This is a fantastic result. The data logger data was also really great. It showed that overall the four rooms used on average 25% more energy than necessary. By installing occupancy sensors in those rooms the school would save an average of 25% energy on lighting. Specific room data is similar. All of them showed between 20 and 30 percent energy savings. So each room saves around the average, or as near as makes no difference.  It was important to get this data because it would show irregularities in the rooms. For instance if one room saved 70% energy and one saved none, the average could still be 25%, but it would clearly be useless to put an occupancy sensor in the second room. But I have that data now, so thats what matters. Now I have everything i need. I can quickly put the occupancy data into another model and have everything i need to write my report. Woohoo, almost done! Yep, im ready to put everything together

blog 11

Analyzing the data is getting really complex. The overall data shows that all the rooms were lit an unoccupied about 25% of the time, but it may differ from one room to the next. So I have to get specific room data. The problem is the sensor only logs whenever there is a change, so to get specific amounts of time a room was lit and unoccupied I have to go through all 839 data points and calculate the time between data points that are lit and unoccupied and the next data point. Since that would take a ridiculously long time I am writing a javascript to do it for me. It is essentially a program that takes a bunch of data (the logger data) and puts it in the right format, then cumulates for each room the total time and the total time lit and unoccupied. The program will get me a really accurate analysis of each rooms energy use. This will take a bit of work, but by the end of the day i should have accurate specific room data. Then I will be able to move on to finishing the models and writing the report. Im just glad I took AP comp science this year, otherwise I would have had to analyze all the data by hand which would have taken a really long time. 

blog 10

Today I ran into some problems with the energy models. For some reason the footprint shifted and all of the zoning and footprint shape got messed up. I spent all day redoing the footprints and zoning for all of the models. This took all day. Im a day behind now, but if i put in some work over the weekend i should be all caught up. I also need to take down the occupancy sensor. Over the weekend i will download the data and get it into easily analyzable form. Then I will analyze it and post my findings on the blog. Mondays blog post, or maybe tomorrows, will be an in depth analysis of the data loggers findings.  After the models are done and the data logger data is collected and organized I can put together the report. I can probably be done with everything and starting the report early next week. 

blog 9

I am blogging again after AP testing. Now that all my classes are over I have a lot of time to dedicate to finishing up the models and starting the report for Mr. Lucido and Mr. Willis. I finished the baseline model, but haven’t run the energy use tests yet.  I’m waiting until I finish the other models.  That way I will be able to compare them side by side and get really good graphs of them together for the report. I will finish up the other two models by the end of the week or the beginning of next week. I will be picking up the sensor from the elementary school on thursday. I will spend a few days analyzing all of the data from the data logger and putting it into an easy to understand format.  Then I will be working on the report of suggestions for the elementary school for the rest of the time.  This is not a very long blog. Im not sure what else to say about today. I am continuing to work on the energy models. I am currently working on the model with light sensors installed. Im having trouble with the glazing. It keeps resetting the windows. I need to redo all of the windows now. But then I will only have a few things to work on to finish this model. 

blog 6

I moved the sensor today from the conference room to the copy room. It will stay there until next monday when I will move it to the art room. I am working through the base case energy model. I still need room measurements.  I know that each classroom has three rows of six fluorescent tube light fixtures. Each fixture has two bulbs in it. So there are thirty six fluorescent lights in each classroom. Each classroom also has a computer for the teacher to use. So I can determine the basic classroom plug load.  I still need to go into the school and get the room dimensions I also need to look at the other kinds of rooms, like the gym, the nurses room, the offices, etc. Once I have the plug load data from those rooms I will be able to finish the baseline model. Then I will use that model as a template to try out different energy efficient measures. I will test daylighting sensors first. Once I have the data from the data loggers I will make a model of the building that measures the effect of occupancy sensors. I think that I am on a good path right now. I am right where I should be time wise. I have two more rooms after this week to get data logger data from. Then I will have about a week to finish up all of the models and compile the research into a report. 

blog 7

Today I will be going to the elementary school to take a bunch of specific school data.  I need to measure out the dimensions of the classrooms and the other types of rooms in the school. I also need to measure the windows. I need to also figure out the installed wattage of each room. For that i need to count the light fixtures and any other plug loads in those rooms. That will mean counting computers and such. This will probably take about two hours at least.  After that I will have everything I need to finish the energy models. Once I have the baseline energy model done I can copy it and use it as a template for making other models with Energy Efficient measures installed. I plan on doing three different other models. One with daylighting sensors installed, one with occupancy sensors installed based on the data from the data loggers, and one with both installed.  I predict that the daylighting model will show the greatest energy use reduction. This is because the rooms with the occupancy sensors are so well lit because they have so many windows. I think that the daylighting sensors will completely eclipse the effect of the occupancy sensors, unless the data loggers show that people rarely turn the lights off. In that case the occupancy sensors and the daylighting sensors together will show slightly more energy reduction. Depending on the cost of installing occupancy sensors it may be the best model. 

blog 5

This week I have started the energy model of the school. I spent a while getting the CAD drawing made to scale so now I have an accurate floor plan of the school. I am starting work on the energy model. Journaling about this is going to be really difficult. I am inputting a lot of data into a computer program, it is not very easy to write 250 words about that. I have most of the basic school building information (size, shape, area, type of building, number of floors etc.) inputted and I am moving on to the more specific energy use and building materials part. I thought that the school plan that had rooms drawn out on it that I got from Mr. Lucido would be helpful in the model because I could scale it up and overlay it in the CAD drawing. Then I could simply trace over the lines and use those for the room layout and zoning plan of the school. Unfortunately the drawing was not to scale (shapewise) and so I will need to go to the school at some point with a tape measure and measure out room dimensions. I also need to survey the school rooms for amount of lighting, fixtures, etc. This will help me ascertain installed wattage of the school. The data logger is installed, I need to change it at the end of the day tomorrow from the conference room to the copy room. Thats all I have to report for today. 

blog 4

Over break I tested the data loggers in my room. I found velcro fasteners that hold them onto the wall really well. I will be using those in the school. The fasteners are also great because they don’t peel of the paint in any way. In my tests I found that one of my data loggers is not connecting to the computer. I don’t know why it isn’t, but as long as it isn’t, I cant use it. Instead I will have to use only the one that does work.  This means that instead of logging each room for two weeks I will have to only log for one week per room. That is not a huge problem though. A bigger problem is that the school internet is down, and that is severely limiting my ability to do work. I need to get a google earth image of a birds eye view of the school. I cannot do that without wifi. I need this image to go forward with the energy model. As is I cannot do any work on the model.  I brought an ethernet cable today and during one of my free blocks I will try it get internet. I also need to email the elementary school principle to ask when I can come in to put up the sensors. I can’t email him while I’m at school with no internet. As soon as I get that image I will start making an AutoCAD drawing of the school. 

Update: I plugged into ethernet, talked to mr willis and got the image i needed. I am installing the sensor at 1:30 today. I have started the process of making a CAD model of the school. I will need to spend a bit of time on this. 

blog 3

Today I made a lot of progress. I was able to get the building layout from Mr. Lucido. He did not have CAD drawings, but he is working on getting them for me. Thank you a ton Mr. Lucido. Not having the CAD drawings is a bit of a setback. I will have to use the building layout in conjunction with a google earth (for scale) to get a good floor plan of the building. Once I get the CAD drawings ill be able to fix any errors I made. But with the basic layout I can start to make the energy model. That was what I did today. I spent all three hours of today working on the energy model. I am starting with the schematic design wizard. This is the most basic level of energy modeling data input. After that I will move to the detailed design wizard, and finally to detailed data edit, to make sure everything is just right. Each level has more and more possible data inputs. Skilled energy modelers will start with detailed data edit, but since I am still fairly new to the software I will go through each level. I am excited to begin work on the energy model. It will take a while but it is really interesting and you can see the progress you are making.  Over break I will be working with the data loggers in my house, testing them and learning how to best work with them. 

blog 2

This week is mostly setup for me. I am doing a lot of research into how to use the data loggers. I will be testing the data loggers over april break in my room, to test a few things. First I need to test the really basic things. I need to find position to mount them in for the best data collection. I also need to test wether the sticky back mounts for the data loggers leaves marks on the walls. On tuesday I went after school to the elementary school. I surveyed the rooms that I chose previously for the best place to mount the data loggers. I decided that all of the rooms I am putting sensors in (conference room, resource room, copy room, art room) will be fairly easy to work with. I will mount the sensors on the walls using the sticky back mounting panels. Mr. Willis also wanted me to introduce myself to the faculty and staff. I have met a few of them already (chiefly the ones who’s rooms I will be using for the study).  I wrote an email for Mr. Willis to forward to the faculty and staff giving a brief introduction of myself and my project.  Going forward into the week I will be spending a lot of time on the wattstopper website (wattstopper is the company that makes the data loggers) learning how to use the software and how to best use the sensors themselves. I also need to get te building plans from Mr. Lucido so that I can start the energy model.

blog 1

This week is mostly setup for me. I am doing a lot of research into how to use the data loggers. I will be testing the data loggers over april break in my room, to test a few things. First I need to test the really basic things. I need to find position to mount them in for the best data collection. I also need to test wether the sticky back mounts for the data loggers leaves marks on the walls. On tuesday I went after school to the elementary school. I surveyed the rooms that I chose previously for the best place to mount the data loggers. I decided that all of the rooms I am putting sensors in (conference room, resource room, copy room, art room) will be fairly easy to work with. I will mount the sensors on the walls using the sticky back mounting panels. Mr. Willis also wanted me to introduce myself to the faculty and staff. I have met a few of them already (chiefly the ones who’s rooms I will be using for the study).  I wrote an email for Mr. Willis to forward to the faculty and staff giving a brief introduction of myself and my project.  Going forward into the week I will be spending a lot of time on the wattstopper website (wattstopper is the company that makes the data loggers) learning how to use the software and how to best use the sensors themselves. I also need to get te building plans from Mr. Lucido so that I can start the energy model.

Outline

Dustin Ferzacca

Introduction

Thesis: The elements which have the greatest impact on the energy efficiency of schools are installed fixtures, daylight and occupancy sensors, and glazing. 

Body Section I

Installed Fixtures

• General Overview
• Installed Fixtures describes the energy use and efficiency of the fixtures (ie lights, computers, appliances and any other fixtures that contribute significantly to the energy load profile of the building)
• Energy efficient fixtures can lower installed fixtures energy use significantly
• Impact
• Installed fixtures add to the basic energy use of the building
• Also contribute to heat and cooling load
• Can reduce HVAC energy use
• Cost vs Effect analysis
• Due to the availability of energy efficient lighting and appliances the cost is relatively low and the payback is relatively quick
• Installed Fixtures conclusion

Body Section II

Daylighting Sensors

• General Overview
• Daylighting sensors are sensors used to measure the level of daylight in a room and dim the installed lighting accordingly
• Impact
• Reduce lighting load significantly in buildings with a large amount of daylight
• Often work well in conjunction with adjusted glazing
• Cost vs Effect analysis
• Daylight sensors are also fairly readily available and widely used
• Cost and installation are low
• Payback is not as fast as installed fixtures since the impact is more subtle
• Daylighting Sensors conclusion

Body Section III

Occupancy Sensors

• General Overview
• Occupancy sensors are sensors that measure wether or not a room is occupied and adjust the lights accordingly
• Impact
• The impact of occupancy sensors is highest in rooms that are infrequently used or used only intermittently throughout the day such as conference rooms or bathrooms
• Where rooms are always used occupied (such as classrooms) occupancy sensors are less impactful 
• Cost vs Effect analysis
• Occupancy sensors are also widely used and readily available
• Cost and installation are low
• Often used in conjunction with daylight sensors
• Occupancy Sensors conclusion

Body Section IV

Glazing

• General Overview
• Glazing describes the outer surface, especially windows and doors, of a building. Glazing also describes insulation and other wall properties important in maximizing HVAC efficiency
• Impact
• The impact of glazing is multi-faceted 
• Reduces HVAC inefficiencies 
• Increases usefulness of daylight sensors
• Cost vs Effect analysis
• Glazing is very expensive to retrofit into already existing schools, however, designing efficient glazing for schools in the design phase is not as complicated or costly
• Glazing conclusion

Conclusion

Works Cited 

Bagoňa, Miloslav, Dušan Katunský, and Marian Vertal. "Analysis of Impact of Selected Glass Units for Energy Consumption and the Risk of Overheating in the School Building Using Simulation." 

Benya, James R. "Lighting for Schools." 

Clevenger, Caroline M., and John Haymaker. "The Impact of the Building Occupant on Energy Modeling Simulations." 

Eckerlin, Herbert M. "An Evaluation of Daylighting in Four Schools In the Research Triangle Area of North Carolina." 

Efficiency Vermont. Whole School Energy Challenge Playbook. N.p.: Efficiency Vermont, n.d. Print. 

Environmental Protection Agency. Energy Efficiency Programs in K-12 Schools. N.p.: Environmental Protection Agency

Kats, Gregory. "Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits." 

Oldroyd, Susan K. "Daylighting in Schools Grades K-12." 

Stack, Greg, Matt Rumbaugh, and Philip Reidel. "Design Guidance for Schools in Phoenix, Arizona." 

US Department of Energy. Energy Design Guidelines for High Performance Schools. N.p.: US Department of Energy.

VonNeida, Bill, Dorene Maniccia, and Allan Tweed. "An Analysis of the Energy and Cost Savings Potential of Occupancy Sensors for Commercial Lighting Systems." 

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