Star performer

ORNL’s own Building 3147 joins elite with EPA-DOE ‘Energy Star’ rating

Building 3147 houses most of the offices of the Buildings Technology Center, an ORNL user facility.

At the ceremony, Christian compared the building, and its location, to the “best softball field I ever saw. It was built on the site of a reclaimed strip mine.”

He continued, “This Energy Division Building is built on a reclaimed nuclear research site. It shows the direction the nation can take with reclaiming and efficiently managing its resources. It’s also the best I’ve ever seen when one takes into account the impressive list of contributions the occupants have made toward achieving this country’s building energy efficiency goals.”

Indeed, Christian cited technologies from the BTC that have charted impressive energy efficiency gains, including

• water heaters that cut energy use by more than half;
• clothes washers that cut energy use by 60 percent;
• the gas-fired GAX heat pump that reduces energy use by 40 percent;
• the “fridge of the future,” which is 60 percent more efficient than fridges of the present;
• dryable roof systems that reduce all waste thrown away in the United States by 1.6 percent; and
• the National Energy Audit software, used by 33 states, which has saved $95 million in energy costs per year. “The NEAT software means that with this one product alone the entire budget of the Buildings Technolgy Center is paid back in the first three months of each fiscal year,” says Christian. “Where else can you find three-month payback invesments?”

An energy management system was installed during construction of the building in 1985. The original lighting was converted in 1994 to high-efficiency lighting and occupancy sensors, reducing energy use of the building by 20 percent.

With those improvements, many of which were overseen by Energy Division’s Terry Sharp, who helped establish many of the benchmarking criteria for the Energy Star award, Building 3147 is one of the top 10 percent in the nation in energy efficiency.

Only 200 commercial buildings in the country have the rating and only about 40 government buildings have it. The other Energy Star–rated commercial building in the state is the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Chattanooga office complex.

Christian also said the Energy Star rating meant that a facility is a “healthy and productive” work environment as well as an energy efficient one.

“This is first-class energy efficient space, and all a part of one of the Lab’s top user facilities,” he said. “Indeed, DOE has built the user facility, and the users have come.”

Find out more about the Energy Star rating at www.epa.gov/buildings/label/.—B.C.