Case Studies
Lake Tahoe Community College
The Challenge
Lake Tahoe Community College is located in the heart of South Lake Tahoe, California, a town of approximately 24,000 residents. At an elevation of 6,229 feet above sea level, Lake Tahoe Community College is located on 164 acres and is the highest college in California. Lake Tahoe Community College is a two-year fully accredited learning institution established in 1975 and has been housed in its present buildings since 1988. The College has building space of over 86,000 square feet consisting of the Main Building, the Phase Two North addition completed in 1996 consisting of the Technology Wing and the Fine Arts Wing, the Child Development Center and modular classrooms. In late 2002 the College’s new 26,000 square foot gymnasium will open as well as a new cafeteria and culinary arts center. The College has approximately 3,000 students each quarter, taught by 49 full-time faculty members, and offers certificates and associate degrees in areas from culinary arts to computer studies. Before the project began, the College had cooling only in the Technology Wing that was supplied by a 25 Ton Trane Chiller and in selected administrative offices and classrooms from individual packaged units. The Fine Arts Wing had piping for cooling but no cooling source.
Our Solution
An energy retrofit project was proposed that consisted of providing cooling to the Fine Arts Wing utilizing a cooling tower and a plate and frame heat exchanger (tower free cooling), re-configuration of the existing multi-zone unit mythology of heating and cooling in the Fine Arts Wing to be more energy efficient, reduction of energy consumption of air handling motors by installing variable speed drives, replacement of the electric hot water heater and clothes dryer in the Child Development Center with natural gas units and energy efficient lighting throughout the facility. Additional detailed highlights of the project included occupancy sensors for lighting in the Main Building, occupancy timers where appropriate for lighting in the Main Building, CO2 sensing for control of air ventilation in the Main Building, outside air fans and ductwork installed in the Main Building to provide increased ventilation, and photocells and timers on parking lot lights.
Impact
Two customer high points of the project was the increased control of space temperature within the buildings and standardization of replacement lighting lamp inventories.
