City Officials Study How to Make Brecksville More Energy Efficient

Overall, Brecksville’s buildings are in pretty good shape, Allan Fox told officials today during a meeting to go over the city’s energy audit. 

Fox is a mechanical engineer with Osborn Engineering, the company that conducted the audit. The audit, which was paid for using a grant from the Cuyahoga County Municipal Energy Program, helped identify places where the city could make its buildings more energy efficient. 

The grant and the audit gave the city a chance to have a building-by-building evaluation like never before, Director of Public Services Ron Weidig said after the meeting. The city will take the recommendations into consideration as they plan capital projects in future years.

Fox and Joseph Cruz, another mechanical engineer with Osborn Engineering, spoke to city officials earlier today about those findings and recommendations. They described problem areas for the city that could be improved and highlighted projects that would earn the city’s money back relatively quickly. The company identified about $1 million in possible upgrades in 16 city buildings, Fox said. The buildings in the audit included  and the , the and centers, the , the , the , Old Town Hall, the Service Department buildings and various buildings in the Blossom complex on Oakes Road.

Mayor Jerry N. Hruby told the engineers that officials planned to take the recommendations seriously, and that they would take on projects as they fit into the budget and work to find additional money.

The report shows officials how buildings can be made more energy efficient, making suggestions about the types of lighting that can be installed and pointing out where heat is lost. There was a lot of talk about heat escaping near doors, which Weidig said is a tricky subject in city buildings. Doors get a lot more traffic in those kinds of areas than in homes. 

Areas that would have the biggest financial returns for the city would be in switching to more efficient lighting and heating, said Becki Burlingham, the city’s purchasing director. Weidig noted during the meeting that some of the lighting improvements were already being made in upgraded rooms.