1

Trimming the Lamps: What is the Best Practice?

A Brief Survey of the Policy, Players & Trends Involved with Unnecessary Commercial Office Lighting

MAPL 5315: Sustainable Development Instructors: Hansen, Adams, Glass & Hickman

Student: John Hakes

2

City Center & IDS Tower where cost= $5k per day

DOE: US business spends $33 billion/yr lighting

Commercial lighting 20% of CO2 emissions

Why are office lights on overnight?

Sources: WCCO TV News, 10/28/10;

E360 Digest, June 2010

3

Summary of 346 energy-related bills in National Conference of State Legislatures during 2009/10

No Current State Requirement in MN Rules Chapter 1323 or MN Statutes Chapter 216C◦ One rule lighting regulation in 35 years-repealed

Even ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Doesn’t Address

“Lighting” Legal Landscape

Sources: Julia Verdi, NCSL

Bob Eleff, House Resarch Bruce Nelson, Office of Energy

Security

4

Started in1975 in response to energy crisis; written in mandatory code language

Basis for building codes and design & construction throughout United States

Lighting: concerns type, wattage, & power density required to obtain Certificates of Occupancy

ASHRAE Standard 90.1Overview

Sources: "ASHRAE Insights" Dec. 2010;

Building Energy Codes Resource Center

5

2010 edition seeks 20% energy reduction over 2004 standard.

2010 ASHRAE standard won’t be adopted in MN until 2015

China to build 10 NY cities in next 15-20 yrs

2010 Version of Standard 90.1

Source:" ASHRAE Insights" Dec. 2010

6

“It’s difficult to pass energy laws that have any teeth.”

“It’s funny you have to talk people into something that’s for their own good.”

The party (tenant) who is paying the light bill is not the party (building owner) who is making the investment.

Unlike the smoking ban law, building code issues are technical, complex & hidden.

Impediments to Legislation

Sources: Bob Eleff, House Research; Bruce Nelson, Office of Energy Security

7

MN Stat. 216B.1691 Subd 7 MN’s Renewable Energy Objectives: ◦ Requires graduated use of “eligible energy

technologies” to 25% by 2025.

PUC evaluates compliance every 2 years◦ Financial penalties up to cost of constructing

facilities to comply

“The Legislature doesn’t like to make this kind of law very often.”

2007 Renewable Energy Standard

Source: Bob Eleff, House Research

8

Building Operator Certification

“Getting building operators trained would be better than any law you could pass.”

Bruce Nelson: Dept of Commerce’s Office of Energy Security

20 states train & certify BO’s

Goal to “know thy

building” using applied practices

Rewards for kWh benchmarking

9

Premium candle company BO Wade Bassett took on 30 projects in 2009 alone

HQ Bldg Automation System for 100s of locations

BAS monitoring creates zones, half-lighting, retrofits & sensors

Utility company-provided rebates & incentives

A BOC “Difference”

Source: "BOC Bulletin" -- Summer/Fall 2010

10

Owners happy to install automatic shutoff systems so when $ to invest, rebates available

City Center payback $200k in one year

Management cos often have Chief Sustainability Officers

‘Net zero’ buildings are next step in sustainability ‘Restorative’ (give back) buildings to follow

Sources: Emily Reller. BOMA St. Paul;

Dec. 2010 “St. Paul BOMA News”

BOMA-Building Owners and Managers Association

11

Electrical Grid: The Future is Now

Source of Electric Charging Station Photo:

WCCO TV News, 11/30/10

12

Sources: Chevrolet.com

RevengeoftheElectricCar.com

Straight From the Assembly Line: It’s the Volt !!

1st 350 EV shipment 12/15

“Revenge of the Electric Car” Film

http://tinyurl.com/2aaolj5

13

Wireless light-monitoring network cuts energy use by 40% Employees remotely control lights near workstation

Smart grid technology with IP Addresses for monitoring Test shows 72% reduction in electricity

A San Francisco Success Story

Source: "E360 Digest" June 2010

14

Arm of the US Dept of Energy Office of Science

Reduced energy consumption by 38% in its office buildings since 1985

Developed adaptable Six-Step Energy Management Plan for Challenges of Businesses: ◦ Limited budget with need to justify investment

Pacific NW National Laboratory

Source: ASHRAE Journal, April 2008

15

“Changing behavior” thru perf evaluations, contests

“Recommissioning” of systems including lights

“Company wide” lighting retrofits

New “funding sources” DOE for retrofits

Getting greener Evaluate effectiveness

Four of Six Steps Address Lighting

Source: ASHRAE Journal, April 2008

16

14 buildings to have technologies for turning off lights when unused

BOMA of Chicago says expansion to all of downtown would allow shutdown of 1 coal-fired power plant

Pike Research estimates retrofitting country’s commercial bldgs save BOMA $41billion

Not Sleepless in Chicago

Source: "Environmental Leader" - 7/23/10

17

Commercial nighttime cleaning built around 1950s part-time worker

“People got used to it” main reason

Calgary converts 23 bldgs to daytime cleaning ◦ Tenants appreciate seeing work

done & reduced security risks◦ No reversions

Trained, unobtrusive, eco-friendly cleaning pros

A Cleaning Solution from Calgary

18

These matches consist of a small wax taper, one end of which has been dipped in Phosphorus, and the whole is inclosed in a glass tube hermetically sealed. There is a little ring on the tube to shew where it is to be broken. First warm the phosphorized end … then snap it at or near the ring and draw the phosphorized end out of the tube. It blazes in the instant of its extraction … By having them at your bedside with a candle, the latter may be lighted at any moment of the night without getting out of bed. By keeping them at your writing table, you may seal three or four letters with one of them, or light a candle if you want to seal more which in the summer is convenient. In the woods, they supply the want of steel, flint, and punk.”

Multipurpose Phosporetic Match

Source: "Jefferson and Madison" by Adrienne

Koch

19

“It’s an American way of thinking that if you have enough money, you can exploit a limited resource. We think of individual rights, not collective rights.”

--- Bob Eleff, Legislative Analyst, MN House Research

A New Bill of Rights?

20

Five Stages of Social Change: Discovery, Invention, Innovation, Diffusion, Change

Direct the Commerce Commissioner to require interior, automatic lighting systems in commercial office buildings for all new or substantially renovated construction

Conclusion & Recommendation