Three buildings named winners in energy competition

  • Published
  • By Sarah Olaciregui
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  When participants from three different office buildings were asked, "How low can you go?" they knew it wasn't for a limbo contest, but a serious challenge to reduce weekend energy consumption. Buildings 1624, 1606 and 1305 were all named as winners during the latest energy competition here.

The concept was to reduce energy consumption during the weekend. Three different sets of buildings were grouped together, based on square footage, to see which could reduce the most energy from a Friday night until a Sunday night.

In the first group, Buildings 1612, 1624 and 1614 Phase 2, which range in size from just over 109,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet, squared off against one another the weekend of June 23 and 24. Buildings 1612 and 1624 edged out Building 1614 Phase II. From there, Building 1612 and 1624 faced off the weekend of July 7 and 8. With a .41 percent reduction, Building 1624 emerged as the winner.

As part of the second group, Buildings 1604, 1606 and 1618, which are all around 45,000 square feet, competed in the tournament-style event. After the first weekend, Buildings 1604 and 1606 emerged as the leaders. During the second weekend, Building 1606 came out on top with an 11.27 percent reduction in weekend energy consumption from the baseline reading.

Finally, the third group included Buildings 1614 Phase 1, 1630 and 1305, which range from 93,000 square feet to more than 103,000 square feet. During the first weekend's measurements, Building 1614 Phase I and 1305 recorded the most energy reduction. During the second weekend, Building 1305 came away with the win by reducing energy by 8.86 percent.

"As we said from the start, this competition requires little effort, but shows big results," said Tom Schluckebier, base civil engineer. "With the help of facility managers, we think employees in these three buildings really paid attention to their pre-weekend shutdown measures."

Employees were encouraged to improve energy efficiency by doing small things before going home on Friday. For example, they could make sure their computer monitors were turned off. They could close their blinds to block the sunlight from coming in and heating the room. They could also turn up the thermostat temperature to keep the air conditioner from kicking on as often.

Facility managers also aided in the effort by going through a checklist provided by Civil Engineering. The checklist included items like looking for leaking faucets, closing off un-air conditioned areas, checking for misaligned exterior doors or pointing out excessive illumination.

The competition is part of an overall Air Force Materiel Command initiative to reduce energy consumption. The AFMC effort, called the AFMC Energy Excellence Award, runs throughout 2012 and each major command base can earn points by conducting their own competition, as well as pursuing several other energy-saving initiatives.

The results of this competition will be announced in early 2013.

But base officials hope energy conservation doesn't stop at the conclusion of the Hanscom or AFMC competitions.

"Employees should continue to think about reducing energy not only just before the weekend, but each and every day," said Schluckebier. "Doing small things really add up in the long run. It saves money and helps us do our part in helping the environment."

Anyone who has further energy conservation questions, comments or suggestions may send an email to the energy management mailbox at 66.ABG.CEK.Energy@hanscom.af.mil.