By Michele Richinick

During the past year, the university has begun working on projects to cut down on energy consumption. So far, Northeastern facilities has completed cheaper energy projects, and allowing them to tackle the more complex projects.

“In the energy business the easy jobs, like changing to fluorescent light bulbs, are called ‘low hanging fruit’ [projects] because they’re so easy to do and have such good energy savings,” said Joe Ranahan, assistant utilities manager. “There are no more low hanging fruit projects left. Those have all been picked so we have to go after the sort of ‘big money’ type [projects] that cost a lot of money.”

The university is currently replacing the heating system in Speare Hall with a more modern system, and the opening of new buildings, like Parcel 18, will have features that are more efficient than in older buildings on campus, said Ryan Fox, Student Government Association vice president for student services.

“Energy conservation projects can require large, upfront investments, but in the end they benefit both the environment and the bottom line of the university, and therefore the students,” Fox said. “I think the current structure of performing a few upgrades per year spreads out the financial burden of these large-scale projects, while still bringing tangible results in the here and now.”

The low hanging fruit projects facilities workers have been working on include replacing the fixtures in the Columbus parking garage with more efficient fixtures with lamps that use about half the power and provide more lighting, Ranahan said. They are also replacing the liquid hand soap in the public bathrooms on campus with a Green Seal foam hand soap, which will save water by dispensing a smaller volume of soap, but keeps hands just as clean, he said.

Another big money project is the process of taking out old and insufficient air conditioners, which removes heat from a liquid via a vapor-compression.

“We can start to do a lot of [big money projects], but they all cost money to do and they’re not something that need to be done,” Ranahan said. “But we’d like to do if we can afford it. It’s trying to balance what we need to do with what we want to do. Big capital improvements are what we’re up against now.”

The university has also posted a sustainability manager position to help coordinate the sustainability effort on campus, Ranahan said.

“The university has been very active this summer on projects that will reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment and [we] will continue to do all we can to increase the sustainable operation of our campus,” Ranahan said.

Some have expressed concerns about lights being on in residence halls during the summer when many are closed. Several residence halls that are closed for the summer can be seen with lights on.

The light can be attributed to workers who forget to turn off the lighting, hallway lights that are never switched off or the building being a Residence Assistant apartment, Ranahan said. Also, many conferences are held at Northeastern throughout the summer, and the attendees use the residence halls, Ranahan said.

“People might think a residence hall is closed when it is actually completely full of people,” he said.

When residence halls are closed during the summer, it gives facilities the opportunity to deep clean, paint and repair any damage to the rooms, Ranahan said.

“We make every effort to remind the workers to turn off lights and air conditioning at the end of every work day, and they are usually very good about it,” Ranahan said.

Northeastern’s energy use is declining at a small, steady rate from year to year, while energy costs are rising at a steady rate, Ranahan said. When strictly comparing electricity usage in the fall and summer semesters, the university uses more electricity in the fall, he said.

Dan Abrams, director of marketing and public relations for the Husky Energy Action Team, said facilites is working hard, but needs to be better.

“I think they’re doing well, in terms of energy,” he said. “It’s something that they’re looking to improve and it does need improving.”

The Egan, Mugar and Hurtig research buildings, followed by Richards Hall and the Curry Student Center, are the buildings that use the most electricity per square foot on campus during the summer months, Ranahan said.

The average residential customer uses about 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, which totals a monthly bill of about $96. Those people living in residence halls or small apartments tend to use less, while those in larger houses would generally use more, said Mike Durand, a spokesperson for NSTAR, the largest Massachusetts-based, investor-owned electric and gas utility company.

Although there have been improvments, Northeastern does not have the projects in the works that will make a major reduction in its energy consumption. This was verified by an Energy Services Company that performed an energy audit on Northeastern’s facilities to give an outside perspective on what kind of job facilities are doing to conserve energy, Ranahan said.

“We do not have a formal written energy conservation policy in effect right now but we always take it into consideration because we understand how important it is,” Ranahan said.

However, the university is attempting to change this. The Sustainability Committee is working on a written policy that addresses energy conservation and many other aspects of sustainability on campus, he said.

“We have already done almost all of the major updates that would make a drastic change to our energy consumption,” Ranahan said. “Our task now is to find energy inefficiencies that are less obvious and continue to keep up with technology.”