Empire State Building to be a Replicable Model for Energy Efficiency Retrofits
GREENBUILD -- Retrofitting the 78-year-old Empire State Building is a major undertaking. Clay Nesler is part of a team of experts responsible for the project. What exactly does his team expect to achieve, and at what cost?
November 11, 2009
New York's historic icon of architecture is getting an energy retrofit. Its owner assembled a team of specialists, including the Clinton Climate Initiative and Rocky Mountain Institute.
The team evaluated 60 potential measures to reduce the carbon emissions and energy consumption of the building.
They crunched the numbers -- the kilowatts, tons and dollars -- and narrowed the list down to eight measures that will be included in the retrofit.
"We've found the proverbial needle in the haystack," says Clay Nesler, Vice President of Global Energy and Sustainability for Johnson Controls Inc. "We've found a project with deep energy savings and a positive financial return for the owner."
Nesler will present the details of the Empire State Building retrofit project at Greenbuild 2009 on Thursday. He spoke with us today at the conference in Phoenix.
Energy savings pay for the retrofit
The retrofit is expected to deliver 38 percent energy savings for the 102-story skyscraper, which would significantly trim the monumental $11.4 million annual energy bill."When these measures are done in the right way, in the right order, they have an incremental payback of three years," Nesler says.
The most important measure is to reduce the cooling load for the 2.5 million square foot building. The existing chiller plant will be refurbished, and the existing heat radiators will remain in place.
Rather than installing another chiller plant to gain more capacity, other measures will allow the building to operate on the existing HVAC system. They include variable-frequency drives, upgraded air-handling equipment, controls, and better insulation.
"We added insulation behind radiators so we'll be heating the inside of the building, and not the entire island of Manhattan," Nesler explains.
The windows will be refurbished -- not replaced -- to preserve the double-hung frames and prevent tons of glass from going into landfills.
"We're actually putting together a factory in the Empire State Building," Nesler says. "Every night, 50 windows will come out, and go to the factory to be refurbished. The two panes of glass will be recovered, the frame will be reused, and a new spacer and an inert gas will be added."
While this is happening, 50 refurbished windows will be installed. The glass will get a UV film that is tuned to the orientation of the building, so the south-facing windows will reject more heat.
Sharing information to create a "replicable model"
The tourist attraction that was once the world's tallest building will become an education tool."We have a great opportunity because millions of tourists visit this building," Nesler says. "The energy efficiency and other sustainability features of the building definitely will be presented to the visitors."
Tenants will have energy management systems so they can monitor and reduce their own energy use.
Outreach to the commercial real estate industry is an even more important aspect of this project. If this is the only building to benefit, the owner won't consider it a success, Nesler explains.
The owner's goal is to create a replicable model that can be used to make large commercial office buildings more energy efficient, anywhere in the world. The team has placed the tools and processes used in this project in the public domain, so they can be used by anyone with a similar project.
The Clinton Climate Initiative inspired the building's owner to retrofit the building. Jones Lang Lasalle is the owner's representative. The Rocky Mountain Institute headed by Amory Lovins provides energy efficiency expertise. Johnson Controls operates as an energy services company and technology provider.