14 DAY TRIAL // The University of Central Florida has the most eco-friendly building, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The organization succeeded in ranking first in a competition, after struggling to exceed the performances of 245 other smart buildings that preserve energy, trigger important savings and increase the air quality.
The grand winner is a main-campus parking garage which proves to be a hot spot for energy conservation. After being monitored from September 2010 to August 2011, the experts affirm that the building has improved its consumption, while becoming energy-efficient. At the end of the monitoring period, the facility won after displaying energy savings of up to 63.2%.
This year, the competition was tighter than ever, probably because most of the manufacturers and construction companies realized that green homes and commercial buildings have increased their popularity.
The people who joined forces to turn University of Central Florida (UCF) into a sustainable institution convinced the jury that they raised the quality and efficiency of the garage lightning, by using only powerful fluorescent lights.
Also, they equipped the storage areas with motion sensors. All in all, UCF decreased its lightning bill by up to 50% during the competition. As we speak, officials from the institution are trying to apply the same cost-effective changes to other facilities across the campus.
While relying on technological improvements and maintenance innovations, all the participants managed to save up to 240 million kBtus of energy. If the same path is followed, officials from the attending companies would be able to take $5.2 million off the utility bill every year.
Even more important is that the contestants considerably improved the air quality, protecting the atmosphere from the amount of greenhouse gases that would be generated by 3,600 average households.
The competition was also an “old versus new” kind of challenge, since it implied both innovative structures and buildings which were built 100 years ago.
All the building owners who tried to find out how energy-efficient their facilities really are relied on Portfolio Manager, EPA's Energy Star energy tracking device, available online.