Urbauer, Lopata, and Jolley Retro-Commissioning Project

Our team provided retro-commissioning services for three engineering buildings on the Washington University Danforth Campus, with the goal of identifying and implementing measures for energy savings, as well as operational and facility improvements.  

This effort will help support Washington University’s Strategic Plan for Sustainable Options, which includes aggressive energy and carbon reduction goals by 2020. The three buildings included in this retro-commissioning project included: 

• Urbauer Hall – 65,000 ft² Engineering Research and Classroom Building 

• Lopata Hall – 45,000 ft² Science Classroom and Engineering Building 

• Jolley Hall – 55,000 ft² Engineering Laboratory Building 

For each building, Retro-Commissioning Measures (RCMs) were identified that will provide energy savings and improve operations. RCMs being implemented include optimizing existing HVAC control sequences and set-points, identifying and fixing equipment capacity, demand-based occupant controls for ventilation and lights, reconfigurations to allow for economizer (free cooling) operation, lighting replacements with LEDs, and corrections to ventilation rates and building pressure controls. 

Additional operational improvement measures included re-commissioning of existing terminal units, fixing heating and cooling issues in problematic spaces, and identifying/ resolving building envelope leakage issues. 

This project is in the final stages of implementation. Projected energy savings are approximately $50,000 per year, with an initial investment of roughly $300,000, and simple payback of 6 years.