PSA: Don’t show your parents this article! Imagine if they had an app that showed how much electricity you used and when you used it? That is all possible through electrification. Electrification of buildings is a relatively new and unknown idea for the general public that shows great promise for the future. As more and more studies/installations are done, the benefits of electrification are shown: the ability to not only provide efficient heat and energy but also access this data in an easy way. Users are able to improve their systems by looking at energy usage, aiming to reduce waste. In search of answers to our questions, we contacted Darren Malone, the Director of Facilities and Sustainable Planning at Stuart Country Day School. We asked him how he utilizes the school’s energy usage/data and the benefits that come along. Mr. Malone explained that Stuart had “developed a building energy model based on existing energy use and existing physical building conditions”. Through the model, he can develop new methods and hypotheses on how to more efficiently impact energy use, which results in a financial return on investment. Mr. Malone gave us a specific example of this system; Mr. Malone and his team used their data to convert 4 boilers that were operating individually at 70% efficiency into a boiler system running at 90% efficiency only using one main boiler. The other boilers now act as supplemental sources which help in case the temperature drops severely. This change has reduced their energy consumption by almost 15% of what it used to be and shows the possibilities of electrification due to its adaptability to different systems.
The important thing to look at isn’t the magnitude or size of changes being made, it is the effort being put in to make a change. People like Mr. Malone know that electrification alone will not solve the climate crisis. Instead, they acknowledge that working together in different fields of engineering will result in what we want. It would be very expensive to change an entire system from gas to electric immediately but making constant efforts and changing small things will take us there. For example, at The Lawrenceville School, we use a conglomerate of clean sources: steam capturing, geo-exchange heating, and solar power. Though we still use gas in a number of our buildings, these efforts still provide benefits and reduce our carbon footprint by 4,000 metric tons annually. Now, one may ask: How do we know if progress is being made? My answer to that is LEED certification. Tsai Field House, the Fathers Building, the math wing of the Kirby Math and Science Center, Carter House, the Al Rashid Health and Wellness Center, and the Gruss Center for Art and Design are all LEED-certified Buildings (The Lawrenceville School). LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is a widely recognized system of rating used to ensure all factors of a building are in compliance with environmentally friendly standards (U.S. Green Building Council, 2023). Having these international standards allows for clean living to exceed cultural or political boundaries, everyone working together, pursuing the same goal, saving Earth.
While the thought of a full transition may be daunting due to the hefty price tag, planning around the guidelines of this certification during future construction, while still expensive, can be beneficial in a number of ways long term. An important statistic to look at is ROI (Return on Investment) and whether or not the funding could be better spent elsewhere to help sustainability. Electrification of bigger buildings commonly found on a school or business campus can cost upwards of 100 thousand without the cost of removing the old system.(Rosen 2022) Due to this high upfront cost, making this change alone is unrealistic, however, with the help of possible government subsidies the future can look much cleaner. As seen in figure 1, using EN-ROADS, a simulator that depicts climate situations we saw that with the help of the government, we would see a 20% increase in energy usage and a 10 gigaton decrease in carbon usage. This may seem insignificant when related to ROI, however, that depends on what you consider a return. We think that a clean, healthy world for our kids to live in, is a much better return than any amount of money. All of this is not possible though without a combined effort including people and the government of all nations.
References
(n.d.). Kenneth T. Rosen, David Bank, Max Hall, Irina Chernikova, Scott Reed-NYSERDA – New York State Energy Research & Development Authority. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.nyserda.ny.gov
Sustainability. (n.d.). The Lawrenceville School. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.lawrenceville.org/academics/beyond-the-classroom/sustainability
What is LEED certification? – U.S. Green Building Council. (2022, April 7). U.S. Green Building Council. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/articles/4404406912403-What-is-LEED-certification
Photo Source:
En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator. (n.d.). Climate Interactive. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/
