'Energy Action Month' spotlights conservation Published Oct. 17, 2012 By Steve Hoffmann 81st Training Wing Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- October is National Energy Action Month, a presidential proclamation which encourages everyone, government, citizens, institutions and corporate entities to take action on "pursuing safe and responsible domestic energy production, promoting efficiency, and developing clean energy and renewable fuels." Keesler is well underway in its effort to meet the challenges of this call to action. Michael Barker is Keesler's resource efficiency manager. The position is installed for the sole purpose of proposing projects that could help the base conserve energy and is responsible for pushing that project through the proper channels to get them funded. Keesler is at the top list within Air Education and Training Command in the amount of reductions in energy usage it's been able to achieve since 2003. It's second in the command in total water usage reduction. In order for an energy conservation project to be approved it must have a savings to investment ratio that's above one and meet a payback goal of no more than 10 years. In other words, the initial investment must be recovered by the savings in energy costs within ten years. Currently, all of Keesler's projects will be paid back within five years. Among the projects currently underway is an aggressive demolition and consolidation program. In recent years, Keesler has demolished 13 facilities for a total of 629,000 square feet that no longer needs to be heated or cooled and consolidated operations into newer more energy efficient buildings. In the last four years, 62 HVAC units have been modernized. Upgrades to more energy efficient lighting has also helped conserve energy. Keesler is the first installation in AETC to change out its taxiway lights to LED. An expansion of Keesler's chiller plant circulation is currently underway. This takes chilled water form a central plant and pipes it to various facilities to cool the air in the building rather than using stand alone units at each building. "This allows for one plant to run at full load capacity rather than multiple units running at partial capacity," said Matthew Borzik, an electrical engineer with CSC. "It's the most efficient way to operate the system." Another project underway is the installation of heat recovery chillers which takes the heat generated by large HVAC units and uses it to heat water for that building's hot water needs. This is another project where Keesler is first in AETC to undertake such a project. Another effort is simply getting the word out and letting the base populace know what they can do to help conserve energy. "Turn out the lights," said Borzik. "Probably one third of Keesler's entire energy consumption is in facility lighting. Simply turning out the lights goes a long way in saving energy." To that end, Keesler is also installing motion detectors in many buildings that will be able to detect when no one is in a certain area and can turn out the lights automatically. Barker and a team of local energy professionals will be at the Keesler Exchange Oct. 23-24 to provide information and tips on how to reduce energy and save money.