UNH's Real Energy Captain

Each and every single unit of heat being used in over 40 buildings by over 10,000 students, faculty, and visitors across the entire campus of UNH is meticulously monitored and controlled within one office of one building by one man.

"This is where the magic happens," said Energy Conservation and Use Technician, Alan Trombley, with a wide grin on his face. "There are of course a few others that help me out from time to time, but for the most part it's just me at this computer making small changes here and there within the program."

Trombley, the man behind the curtain, is stationed about one mile off campus at the energy office. The three people working inside this small, white building are dedicated to energy efficient technology; a crucial, yet largely unnoticed department that saves UNH millions of dollars each year. It is this office, among other divisions, that has propelled UNH to the top spot in terms of energy efficiency.

The department's most essential component in energy efficiency and economic conversation comes down to one, highly advanced computer program: the Continuum. This computer software monitors and controls the use of heat within campus buildings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

"It's pretty exciting stuff," said Trombley. "Having the power to sit here, click the mouse, and raise someone's room temperature over in Hubbard by half a degree if they want is impressive to say the least."

Of course, creating this digital world did not exactly happen over night.

BASiX Automation Integrators and UNH began their partnership in 1981 with the installation of an Andover Controls AC256 system. The Andover Control units are basically heat sensors that relay air temperature, volume, density, composition, and directional flow back to a designated CyberStation.

"This computer is the main CyberStation used to direct heat traffic across UNH," said Trombley. "Thousands of sensors installed across campus gather this information and send it to this station, but we didn't always have this easy, touch-and-go interface with software."

So what's the point of having all these fancy gadgets monitoring heat output and input through out the campus? On the most basic level, the Continuum computer program takes all of this data that would be impossible for a human to keep track of and tells particular heating ducts to either slow down, speed up, or shut down.

This means that at no point during the day does UNH exceed at desired level of heat energy output according to preset, standardized conditions. Energy is saved, which means money is saved.

"Every time a heating motor or valves are closed or slowed just 20 percent, 50 percent of the cost to run that unit is saved," said Jim Dombrosk, UNH campus energy manager. "This computer networking system saves our campus thousands of dollars each day."

Trombley can sit at his one computer screen in the energy office and click on almost any on-campus building, some buildings do not have the necessary technology yet to fit into the Building Automation System that is run by Continuum; however, the buildings that are part of the network can be run from one chair.

For example, when Trombley clicks on the name Congreve in the dormitory database list, an overhead floor plan appears that shows the exact temperature of every single room, hall space, common area, and bathroom in the building.

The floor plan also shows whether a designated space is occupied or not by using motion sensors. If there is no one in a certain space, heating will slow or shut down completely depending on the duration of one's absence.

Congreve is an Energy Star dormitory and the first of its kind in the country. The Energy Star designates the dormitory as the highest energy efficiency standard for other schools to follow.

"If a student calls up and tells me he is freezing his butt off I can go in on this screen and raise the temperature in that room to 73.6 degrees Celsius," said Trombley laughing, "and if someone is especially curt with the Energy Office over here, sometimes I like to bump it up just a few extra notches."

With the onset of such advanced technology comes the evolution of a new set of problems, ones that no longer require a wrench and hammer to fix. As fancy sounding as it is, the Building Automation System is not exactly perfect.

"We can spend hours or even days up here sifting through code in the software to make sure certain set points and other details are written correctly when heating units are malfunctioning," Trombley said.

Because the U.S. Department of Energy recently recognized UNH for being in the top 5 percent of energy efficient research universities in the country, saving more than $4 million in energy costs over the last year, the technological growing pains seem hardly enough to complain about.

"Those guys make my chem lab worth the trek over from Woodsides," said undergrad Eric Morris. "At exactly 2:10 p.m. the room we use in Kingsbury has already been precisely preheated due to its digital set points. It's freaky."

So if you are shivering in bed, call up the gentlemen over at energy office and you will think your dreaming in a tropical paradise in no time