McConnell conserves energy to meet government green goals

Published Jan. 6, 2010
By Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski
22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. -- Recently, Air Force leaders rolled out a new energy plan that demands higher conservation expectations from installations, and McConnell continues to live up to that challenge with energy-efficient green goals.

From the mid-80s to 2005, the base reduced its energy consumption more than 38 percent, but an amendment to a U.S. executive order to strengthen federal energy management requires an additional 30 percent reduction by 2015 and serves as a means to reinforce a culture change here.

To keep up with new goals, Norman Zuercher, McConnell's Energy and Utilities manager and engineer from the 22nd Civil Engineer Squadron, said experts are evaluating and using technology to increase the base's energy saving potential.
A greener vision requires him and conservationists to look to other methods and new ideas beyond energy-quick payback projects completed in the past. Mr. Zuercher said the future of McConnell's energy program will depend on investigating and investing into new ideas.

"The (energy) reduction goal going forward is going to be much more difficult as much of the 'low hanging fruit' has already been picked," he said.

The fruit, or quick paybacks, he referred to included large projects such as decentralizing McConnell's steam plants, replacing most of the base lighting with energy efficient-bulbs and installing exterior insulation on older buildings here.

Though the "easy-to-reach" goals are harvested, it won't keep the "picker" from figuring out how to climb to the top of the fruit tree.

In time, several new projects will be implemented and evaluated to determine if they of three focuses in the new energy plan: reduce demand, increase supply and encourage culture change through energy awareness.

One new idea takes advantage of McConnell's location. The south-central Kansas base is located within a path of windy, low-pressure systems from the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Zuercher said this area has high prospects for generating wind energy.

"We are currently investigating two possibilities to tap into (wind energy) potential," he said, "small rooftop turbines on base and large turbines on our decommissioned missile sites."

The first vertical shaft wind turbine is scheduled to arrive at McConnell in the spring.

"After a year of operation, we will calculate the actual payback of the turbine based on the amount of power actually produced and then determine if the payback warrants installing additional small turbines on base," he said.

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is conducting a study for McConnell to assess the feasibility of installing larger wind turbines on the off-base sites, said Mr. Zuercher.

Other evaluations on base are also leaning toward a greener future.

As a test case to evaluate expected energy savings, Mr. Zuercher said a new ground source heating pump was installed in October to heat a building on base where there is no natural gas.

"It is estimated the new GSHP system will use 60 percent less energy than the old propane furnace and inefficient air conditioning system," he said. "If the system performs well, doesn't require more maintenance than traditional systems and results in the expected energy savings, then we will plan projects to install GSHPs on many facilities across McConnell."

Ten years into the 21st century, society is spending more time trying to reduce their carbon footprint replacing gas guzzling vehicles with more fuel efficient cars and household windows with solar panel ones. McConnell is following a similar trend by upgrading a previous and more commonly known quick payback projects.

The base once upgraded florescent lights to fixtures that yielded up to 50 percent energy savings. With room for more improvement, the lights are being swapped out again with modern, brighter fixtures that will improve savings by 25 percent.

Mr. Zuercher said the high bay lighting in McConnell's aircraft hangars are also being equipped with advanced control systems that will turn on and off automatically based on building occupancy and natural daylight levels.

On average, he said the previous fixtures took up to 30 minutes to turn off and on, which created several inconveniences for eager-to-work maintenance Airmen.

The brighter lights will make aircraft inspections easier and there is no warm-up time for the bulbs, so when they are turned on, lighting is instantaneous, said Master Sgt. Eric Chytka, a 22nd Maintenance Group facility manager.

The sergeant said the old lights were not as bright, burned out faster, and required Airmen to change the bulbs, which only could be done around aircraft maintenance time when the hanger was empty.

The new bulbs will last longer and provide a brighter and wider light pattern, Sergeant Chytka said.

Mr. Zuercher said it may be tough to reach an additional 30 percent energy reduction goal by 2015, but McConnell will maintain a steady path of conservation by continuing to improve the efficiency of existing facilities and equipment, installing renewables, receiving funding for new construction and encouraging the base populace to take conscience efforts to conserve.

Even with improvements and energy auditing from base civil engineers, Mr. Zuercher said Airmen here who use the buildings are the key to the base's energy conservation program. He reminds them their conscious efforts and culture change in conservation are also necessary.

"Most people are conscience to conserve in our own homes because our energy usage directly affects our pocketbook," he said. "On base, we're not the ones paying the bill so it becomes easy to forget about conservation. We need to get away from this mindset and instead treat our base facilities if they are our own."

Energy conservation