Retrofits

The U.S. Army’s Facilities Policy Division and Installation Management Agency now specifies that waterless urinals be installed in all new construction and major retrofits effective October 2006. “The Army Standard for non-water using urinals is hereby approved,” states a July memo from the assistant chief of staff for Installation Management, which officially announced the change. “This standard is effective immediately for Fiscal Year 2007 and beyond for projects or major repairs not yet solicited.” The directive states that non-water using urinals will now be an Army standard for new construction and major repairs, and it will be considered a “best practice” to replace existing urinals using more than one gallon of water per flush with waterless systems. According to Annette L. Stumpf, an Army architect at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Lab in Champaign, IL, the decision to install only waterless urinals is based on the following reasons: * They can save up to 45,000 gallons of water per year.* Waterless systems require no freeze protection.* Electrical requirements for pumps are eliminated.* There is no need to provide an infrastructure for fresh (potable) water.* Septic loads and water treatment time are reduced.* The waterless systems require no installation or maintenance costs for flush handles, valves, sensors, or water supply piping.* No batteries, transformers, or other electronics are necessary.* The units are environmentally friendly. Klaus Reichardt, managing partner of Waterless No-Flush® urinals, Vista, CA, adds that “the use of waterless urinals is also consistent with ... Read more

Over the next two years, 148 GE Industrial manufacturing plants and warehouses worldwide — 110 in the Americas, 36 in Europe and two in Asia — will undergo extensive lighting retrofits that could cut annual lighting energy costs at each facility an average of 50%. Based on extensive energy savings analysis conducted at 65 of the 148 facilities, the retrofit will allow each location, on an average annualized basis, to reduce energy consumption by 1.4 million KwH and realize approximately $86,000 in energy cost savings. Estimates for the completed 148-facility retrofit include reducing energy consumption by 210.5 million KwH and saving $12.8 million in energy costs, annually, when compared with the older lighting. Another forecasted environmental benefit tied to the 148-facility retrofit is the production of 155,700 fewer metric tons of CO2, which equates to the ongoing elimination of pollution from nearly 30,000 average-sized cars or the good that comes from planting over 70-square miles of trees. Rising Energy Costs Spur InitiativeIn August 2004, Jack Fish, vice president of global manufacturing, GE Consumer & Industrial, asked his team to devise a plan for cutting energy costs by 20%. He wanted to counter forecasted energy price increases that were sure to affect the profitability of GE Consumer & Industrial’s Appliances, Lighting, Lighting Systems, and Electrical Distribution operating units. Conversations with plant managers and lighting executives kept returning to lighting retrofits, which the lighting unit had been promoting externally among customers as the fastest way to slow down energy meters, and thereby ... Read more