BATON ROUTE, La. — Claiborne Elementary School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has won the Energy Star National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Louisiana Controls Inc., a Baton Rouge-based member of the InsideIQ Building Automation Alliance, completed upgrades to the school’s facility controls and energy management system (EMS) that helped the school cut its energy use nearly in half, leading to a win in the competition.

Teams representing more than 3,000 buildings across the country spent the past year competing to obtain the greatest reduction in energy use.

Completed in 2011 for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS), the 100,892-square-foot Claiborne Elementary School replaced a much smaller 60-year-old facility of the same name and was designed to meet the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1.

“Once the warranty period expired, Aramark energy managers collaborated with Louisiana Controls to develop and implement specific modifications and refinements to the facility control sequences and energy management functions,” said Tommy Reed, president and general manager of Louisiana Controls. “Some of these included changes to ventilation control strategies to more closely match delivered fresh- air ventilation volumes to the actual needs of occupied spaces as well as the addition of discharge air temperature reset control during periods of normal humidity levels.”

The final result of all these efforts was a 46 percent reduction in energy use at the Claiborne campus, culminating in the Battle of the Buildings award for overall energy use reduction. Annual energy operating costs at Claiborne fell from $2.07 per square foot in 2012 to $1.32 per square foot in 2013, an improvement over the first year operations and well below the per square foot cost of the old school facility.

Publication date: 7/14/2014 

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