Energy-saving projects outlined for school board
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Honeywell Building Solutions, which was commissioned last year to do an energy audit of SAD 1, has taken the board’s request to identify relatively short-term payback projects to heart, and those suggestions were shared with directors at their March 13 meeting.
“Honeywell has since identified a few immediate payback projects,” said Charles Anderson, SAD 1 business manager.
Should directors approve the 10-year self-funded project’s scope of work, the biggest project would involve converting from No. 2 fuel to liquefied petroleum (LP) gas at all five of the district’s buildings — Presque Isle High School, Presque Isle Middle School, and Mapleton, Pine Street and Zippel elementary schools.
“That would involve replacing the boilers at PIHS and Pine Street, which will need to be replaced regardless of whether we do this conversion or not,” Anderson said, “as they’re both well in excess of 50 years old.”
Other components to the LP conversion would include combustion air upgrades at PIHS and Zippel, new duel fuel LP/oil burners on the boilers at all schools, required code upgrades for LP conversions at all schools, and new underground propane tanks at all schools except Mapleton, which is an above-ground tank.
The LP conversion project would cost $1,094,355 with an annual energy cost savings of $206,181. It would take 5.3 years for the project to “pay for itself.”
“Nobody knows what tomorrow is going to bring for the cost of oil versus LP,” said Anderson, “but in general, we’re living in an environment where there seems to be plentiful amounts of LP at relatively good costs, so as long as the cost differential stays the same, we can say with pretty good surety that these numbers are reasonable.”
Another item Honeywell identified as a “good payback project” is building infiltration upgrades at all schools.
“That includes pretty straightforward things like weather stripping doors and adding insulation,” said Anderson.
The building infiltration measure would cost $282,800 and would save the district $42,701 annually. It would see a payback in 6.6 years.
“The last big-ticket cost and return item would be an interior and exterior lighting retrofit at all schools,” Anderson said. “It seems like every 15 years there’s a new generation of smarter, more efficient, lower wattage lighting and that’s what this project would entail.”
The lighting retrofit plan would cost $157,013 and save $20,075 per year. It would take 7.8 years to reach its payback.
“When we looked at a total combined project cost of around $1.5 million with reductions of about 30 percent annually in heating or electrical costs,” said Anderson, “we thought this was something that the board would want to look at pretty seriously.”
Director Paul Saija, who chairs the buildings and grounds committee, said he supports Honeywell’s suggestions.
“Even though there’s a lot of budgetary problems this year,” he said, “I think it’s a good time to do these things. The boilers at the high school and at Pine Street are quite old, and as someone from Honeywell said, it would be quite an expensive and bad thing if one of those boilers quit in the wintertime.
“I think what Honeywell has proposed here would be a great improvement to the buildings. On the lighting side, that also includes a rebate of $27,985 from Efficiency Maine,” said Saija. “I see it as a win-win. The only thing is we would have upfront costs that would probably have to be bonded, but interest rates are low right now, and I strongly recommend that we take this audit seriously.”
The SAD 1 board will meet March 27 to further discuss and vote on Honeywell’s recommendations.
Also at the regular monthly meeting, directors:
• Reappointed six teachers for the 2013-14 school year who have completed one year of satisfactory teaching in the district. They include Paul Ballerstein (math), LeRae Kinney (social studies) and Lisa McKenna (school nurse) at PIHS, Sara Donahue (special education) at PIMS, Rebecca Shea (speech) at Pine Street, and Terence Harper (drafting) at the Presque Isle Regional Career and Technical Center.
The following teachers have completed two years of satisfactory teaching and were reappointed for the 2013-14 school year to a continuing contract: George Knox III (social studies), Bethany Staples (special education) and Katalin Grooms (math) at PIHS, and Joel Hall (English/social studies) at PIMS.
The next regular board meeting will be Wednesday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the board conference room at PIHS.
