NEW ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

Empire State Building Plans Environmental Retrofit
Mireya Navarro, April 6, 2009 (NY Times)
and
Johnson Controls lands $20M energy program contract at Empire State Building
Rich Rovitom April 6, 2009 (Business Journal of Milwaukee)
and
CSE interviews Johnson Controls on Empire State Building retrofits; Long-term capital and retrofit planning enable "right steps in right order" as the "big Aha!"
Michael Ivanovich, April 6, 2009 (Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine)

SUMMARY
The venerable Empire State Building, the Art Deco landmark at the heart of Manhattan on 34th Street at 5th Avenue, will undergo a standard-setting retrofit and energy efficiency upgrade.

The efficiency makeover, expected to cut energy consumption 38% and save $4.4 million/year, will begin in Summer 2009. It is part of a $500 million renovation already started on the building owned by Wien & Malkin.

The Empire State Building, a Big Apple icon built in 1931, has 102 stories, 2.6 million square feet, 6,500 windows and 73 elevators. It has 302 office tenants and sees ~13,000 people daily, including the 18 hour-per-day, 7 day-per-week tourist traffic to the 86th floor and 102nd floor observatories.

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Johnson Controls is the project designer, working in conjunction with the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Institute and Jones Lang LaSalle. They have determined that, as is the case with most buildings, big improvements in energy use can come from the Empire State Building’s lighting, cooling and heating systems.

Swedish construction company Skanska took over the 32nd floor in November 2008 and retrofitted its 24,400 square foot office space. By adding, among other innovations, daylight sensors to reduce lighting use, the company cut its electric bill by one-third. It has applied for the U.S. Green Building Council’s platinum certification, the highest official authentication of efficiency.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also grades buildings for efficiency through its Energy Star program. 6,200 commercial and institutional buildings have been awarded Energy Star status by increasing efficiency 30-to-40%. When its retrofit is complete, the Empire State Building is expected to reach the top 10% of Energy Star office buildings.

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COMMENTARY
The Empire State Building retrofitting can be followed at ESB Sustainability.

Upfront costs often discourage major retrofit undertakings but rising power costs mean energy savings from this project in the Empire State Building that will shorten the payback period to only 3 years.

Indicative of the exemplary status of this project, intended to demonstrate how older buildings can be successfully retrofitted to the highest standards, New York City dignitaries including Mayor Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton, both champions of New Energy and Energy Efficiency, attended the announcement of the undertaking.

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78% of New York City’s greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions come from buildings, 25% from commercial buildings. The bulk of the GhGs are the result of electricity and natural gas use. Retrofitting for efficiency can dramtically reduce that consumption.

Johnson Controls will do 8 separate retrofit projects. Its biggest challenge: Figuring out what was where, in the absence of the historic building's original drawings and specifications.

50% of the building's energy cuts will come in the first 2 years by replacing double hung operable windows, insulating behind radiators and rebuilding chillers in the basement cooling plant.

A chiller plant retrofit will significantly reduce the cost of keeping the building cool during the intense New York City summer heat. With a chiller plant, water is chilled during off-peak hours and stored for circulation through the building to cool it during the heat of the day when power that would otherwise be used to run air conditioning is the most expensive.

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Johnson Controls and its subcontractors will eliminate transport-related energy costs and emissions by creating a small, window-factory on site to redo 50 windows per day with a layer of insulating film between the glass panes.

Besides upgrades to the electrical and ventilation systems, they will install “smart” electronic instrumentation that will allow central monitoring and management of energy demand as well as allow tenants to monitor their own energy usage from an online “dashboard.”

Smart technology that facilitates passive and active demand response (DR) is considered the future of all power consumption systems. Enormous savings can be obtained by simply controlling peak demand. Present technology allows for on site management of whole building systems and individual tenant management. With the advent of the “smart” grid, individual spaces and buildings will be linked to the central transmission system so that grid operators can use computer software to make unnoticeable alterations (like changing the temperature one degree) to smooth peak period loads without involving or disturbing tenants or building managers.

From RockyMtnInstitute via YouTube

QUOTES
- Anthony E. Malkin, president, Wien & Malkin: “People associate greening with expense and compromise…We’re trying to prove: no compromise and payback…If we don’t change our unsustainable practices and the amount of energy we consume, if we don’t make our city more efficient, we’re toast…We won’t be able to avoid the sort of changes that would spell a reduced quality of life.”
- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “They’re showing the rest of the city that existing buildings, no matter how tall they are, no matter how old they are, can take steps to significantly reduce their energy consumption…”

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- Paul Rode, project executive, Johnson Controls: “[Figuring out what was where without the original plans and specs] took a lot of investigative work…”
- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton: “In this distressed economic climate, there is a tremendous opportunity for cities and building owners to retrofit existing buildings to save money and save energy…It is this kind of innovative collaboration that is crucial to protecting our planet and getting our economy up and running again.”