Features

Nowhere on campus are the words "fewer emissions" more fitting than at the new UNH power plant, where natural gas (which may be replaced within a year by landfill gas) is the fuel for the co-gen process. Among the best of new efficiency technologies, this process involves only a single device, which generates both electrical power and heat.

At UNH, a gas-fired turbine (essentially a jet engine at work on the ground) has replaced the old steam boilers in the central heating plant and substantially reduced the amount of electricity purchased for the campus. Because they produce enormous amounts of waste heat, electric generators are considered relatively inefficient. In a co-gen system like the one at UNH, on the other hand, waste heat is captured in a vast duct arrangement and drawn off to produce steam in a boiler system. Most of the steam is used to produce hot water, which is then piped around campus.

From left, Liz Joseph '08 and Lena Collins '07 helped run a contest to reduce electricity and water use in dorms.

When the pipeline project is finished, methane gas will flow into UNH's power plant at 2,500 cubic feet per minute (cfm), reaching a high of 4,000 cfm when the landfill reaches capacity. The supply is expected to last for at least 20 years. Once the project is underway, the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to UNH will be reduced by at least 57 percent, compared to 1990 levels. And the pipeline project has an added benefit, notes Chamberlin: more stable energy costs. "Costs have been rising an average of 18 percent annually over the last five years," he says. "And we experienced tremendous market unpredictability post-Katrina." Mostly, though, Chamberlin is proud of the university's ongoing commitment to be good stewards of the environment. "For me," he says, "that is the real win."

From modest quarters in a modular unit behind the Leavitt Center, Jim Dombrosk '95G and his crew keep tabs on 500 meters covering a host of energy districts on campus. "We are in the first phase of putting radio transmitters on those meters, so they will report their measurements directly to the computer, taking readings every half hour," explains Dombrosk, UNH's director of energy and utilities. "The very precise monitoring means adjustments can be made quickly-and more energy can be saved."

After 30 years of energy-saving innovations, Dombrosk has earned a reputation as UNH's energy guru. When he first arrived, for example, he was managing the new building control systems. Instead of allowing the electrically heated residence halls—Stoke, Williamson, Christensen—to come online all at once, forcing UNH to pay a high kilowatt-hour rate, Dombrosk wrote a program that brought the heating load in a staggered or rolling pattern, keeping residents warm but "shaving the peak" and reducing the rate.

Since then, Dombrosk has been a tireless champion of UNH's greening efforts, pursuing new technology, fuels and building designs; promoting policy, education and awareness. The tools of his trade? Variable speed drives, energy exchangers, "smart" breakers, movement sensors, specially designed ventilation and lots of specialized software—including computer monitor-control software that alone saves the institution $75,000 a year.

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