USAF Academy Saved $1 Million on Energy in FY2016
Building audits are conducted regularly, and these allow the academy to review or considers solar arrays; geothermal energy; building infrastructure; window efficiency; insulation; and installing new boilers and HVAC equipment.
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado used energy conservation and cost-saving measures to cut the school's utility bill by $1 million in the 2016 fiscal year, Ray Bowden of U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs reported Oct. 24. The school's energy bill for FY2016 "was just above $6 million and hovered around $7 million for the 2015 fiscal year," he wrote, citing Wayne Inouye, the base's energy manager, as the source for those numbers.
"We met and surpassed [federal] energy-reduction goals," Inouye said in the article.
It quotes Larry Newton, resource efficiency manager at the academy, as crediting the drop in energy cost to energy-efficient lighting on the outside of the Vandenberg Hall dormitory, in the Pine and Douglas Valley housing areas and on several academy roads, and other cost-cutting measures. And during this fiscal year, the academy will reduce its water consumption by placing Xeriscaping around the visiting officers and bachelors' quarters, Newton said, adding that the goal of senior officials at the base is to reduce energy consumption, improve water conservation, and reduce maintenance costs.
Building audits are conducted regularly, and these allow the academy to review or considers solar arrays; geothermal energy; building infrastructure; window efficiency; insulation; and installing new boilers and HVAC equipment, Newton said.