Energy Investments

I wrote a week or so ago about sustainability. I mentioned having attended the regional planning conference and seeing what other communities both in New England and elsewhere are doing to promote sustainability and energy awareness.

Building upon that, I thought I would use this week's blog post to discuss the energy infrastructure improvements that have been completed here in Dover. My office has overseen the improvements and has worked continuously with Johnson Controls, the vendor to install, test and ultimately commission the infrastructure.

The improvements have included retrofitting lighting, toilet retrofits weatherization and installing air conditioning units in City Hall. Lighting in the Mast Road public works facility, McConnell Center and various recreation facilities has also been installed. Included in the recreation facilities has been improvements to the pools, and vending machines. Finally, improvements will be made to the Waste Water Treatment Facility's aeration blower and upgrades to transformers in various buildings.

To date we know that there has been a lowering of consumption and of emissions of green house gases. These emissions amount to:

Electricity:
reduced GHGs 26 tons CO2

Natural Gas:
reduced GHGs 23.1 tons CO2

Fuel Oil:
reduced GHGs 8 tons CO2

A good comparison is that we have lowered the CO2 equivalent to planting 1464 tree seedlings, if they grew for 10 years, or 13 acres of pine or fir trees. This also equals the emissions of 10 cars (reduced that amount), or saved 133 barrels of oil from being consumed.

In regards to consumption savings, overall we have seen:


Electricity:
reduced 16kW
Cut 68,522 kWh
Saved over $8,000

Natural Gas:
reduced 544 Therms
Saved over %7,000

Water:
reduced 475 gallon
Saved over $5,000

In total there has been over $21,000 saved because of the improvements.

I will continue to include these stats from time to time to bring people up to speed. For now though, take a look at some of the improvements, and please take a minute to think about how you can meet or beat the City at the savings/sustainability game. One way to get a leg up is to attend the Button Up NH workshop the Energy Advisory Committee will be hosting November 15th from 6 to 8 pm in the McConnell Center Cafeteria.