Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago is a policy research center located southeast of the Midway Plaisance. It is a 65,000 square foot building originally constructed in 1860, with many renovations and alterations over the last 160 years. It is home to important research that focuses on child welfare and family well-being and serves as a steward of administrative data for a number of public agencies. In 2019, the building was identified as having great energy conservation potential, mainly due to its age. Chapin Hall’s high energy use intensity (EUI), along with a potential for energy and comfort improvements made it an obvious candidate for our Preventative Maintenance and Commissioning (PM+Cx) program. 

Chapin Hall staff members and several University departments including Energy Services, South Campus Engineers, and the Building Automation Shop collaborated on a set of energy conservation measures aimed to improve occupant comfort while improving the building’s energy efficiency. Four measures resulted in a reduction of 53 metric tons eCO₂ per year of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the equivalent of taking eleven cars off the road for one year.  Weather-normalized EUI decreased by 16% since implementation began in 2019, as shown by the trendline below. Equally as important, yet not shown in the graph is the improved building performance, increased occupant comfort, and reduced maintenance costs.

Figure 1: Weather-normalized EUI reduction of 16% since the first measure was implemented in July 2019

In order to be responsive to varying changes in building usage and occupancy over the course of the academic year, the Building Automation Systems team adjusted operating schedules for building air conditioning and heating equipment. The time of day scheduling regulates building HVAC by using programming that adjusts to differences in building occupancy by the time of day. For example, after business hours when occupancy is at zero, key building systems are instructed to turn off to conserve energy. The building restarts HVAC equipment in time for occupancy at 5 a.m. This measure alone will save nearly 40,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity or 28.8 metric tons eCO2 per year of GHG emissions.  The University’s energy management information system validated the energy efficiency calculations, and it will help ensure that building systems achieve the expected energy use reductions in the future.

The University of Chicago is the proud United States Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR® Partner, collaborating with peer institutions to reduce higher education campus energy usage. The goal of this energy efficiency program is to: (1) reduce the impact on the environment as about 70 percent of University greenhouse gas emissions are from energy usage in campus buildings; (2) redirect funds currently going to utility providers back into the maintenance of our campus buildings; and (3) reduce the risk of disruption to our educational and research mission by locating and correcting issues before systems and components in our buildings fail. More than 200 energy efficiency measures have been completed in the University of Chicago campus buildings since 2009, and buildings will continue to be the primary target of our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.