Library Looking to Install Energy Friendly System

The will soon be keeping with the current trend for sustainability, going “green" and being environmentally friendly.

At the Library’s Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday evening, the board discussed the first steps in installing a new energy management system throughout the building. Ultimately, this would sync all of the building’s temperature control systems, including HVAC, into one area of control and would enable more energy efficient use of the library.

The implementation of an energy management system in the building would save the library money, Assistant Library Director Rocco Castano said.

“This will be a master control of our system. In order to get that, every component – the air conditioners, the boilers, the lights – everything must tie in,” Trustee Michael Turner said.

The first part of this large project is procuring a survey on current temperature control equipment installed to analyze what needs to be updated, improved or replaced in order to be compatible with the new controls for the master system. According to Castano, Johnson Controls was recommended to the library to complete this proposal by their current service company because they are “ the place to go to with the expertise to help them.”

“This company is going to say, here is what you need to tie in the boiler, the air conditioner,” Turner said.

For this phase of the project, the cost would be approximately $4,800.  Castano had applied for a federal energy management grant, where the amount that they would receive would not exceed $47,000. “The board agreed to cost share another $20,000,” he said.

The total project will run the library around $60,000, Castano added.

Because the majority of the funding is being provided by a federal grant, they need to use the survey as a tool to demonstrate what control parts are going to be used and what is going to be done within the strict federal regulations.

“What this company is going to do is help us come up with the specs we need for the bid to come up with a money-saving system,” Turner continued.

The money for the survey wouldn’t come from the grant – it would be provided by the library's building operations fund. Library Director Carol Probeyahn added that they currently have enough money in the building maintenance budget to cover this expense.

They're going to look at all of the air conditioning units, heating, boilers and other power sources to determine what the best approach on this project would be and what parts are needed to make it operational, Probeyahn explained.

The board accepted the proposal from Johnson Controls to complete the survey in order to move forward with the project.