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IPL-Energy-Audit

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8 pages

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Cool Congregations Carbon Checklist & Action MenuJune 2009Dear friends, Now that you have calculated your congregation’s carbon footprint what should you do next? It’s time to take action! This guide will lead you through the steps and help you decide what you should do first. The changes that you make will save you energy and money at the same time you are helping to protect Creation. This guide is not a replacement for a full energy audit by a qualified professional. A professional energy audit will utilize special tools that can see air leaks and find spots that need insulation. But if you are not yet ready to do a professional energy audit, a small group of people can use this guide to take many important steps. There are five easy steps to begin:1. Gather a team at your congregation. You’ll need the support of the head of the congregation, so be sure to ask for their endorse-ment. Then you’ll want to involve people who know your congregational building well, along with office and building maintenance staff. Finally, you need a project champion – someone to put things in motion and assign tasks. Maybe that’s you. 2. Calculate your congregation’s footprint by going to www.CoolCongregations.com. This website was designed specifically for houses of worship. There’s a checklist on the website which tells you what documents you’ll need to gather to complete the footprint. Once you’ve input your data, it will tell you your carbon footprint. ...

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Publié par	Viwyir
Nombre de lectures	15
Langue	English

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Cool Congregations Carbon Checklist & Action Menu

Dear friends,

June 2009

Now that you have calculated your congregation’s carbon footprint what should you do next? It’s time to take action! This guide will lead you through the steps and help you decide what you should do ﬁrst. The changes that you make will save you energy and money at the same time you are helping to protect Creation. This guide is not a replacement for a full energy audit by a qualiﬁed professional. A professional energy audit will utilize special tools that can see air leaks and ﬁnd spots that need insulation. But if you are not yet ready to do a professional energy audit, a small group of people can use this guide to take many important steps.

There are ﬁve easy steps to begin:

1. Gather a team at your congregation. You’ll need the support of the head of the congregation, so be sure to ask for their endorse-ment. Then you’ll want to involve people who know your congregational building well, along with oﬃce and building maintenance staﬀ. Finally, you need a project champion – someone to put things in motion and assign tasks. Maybe that’s you.

2. Calculate your congregation’s footprint by going to www.CoolCongregations.com. This website was designed speciﬁcally for houses of worship. There’s a checklist on the website which tells you what documents you’ll need to gather to complete the footprint. Once you’ve input your data, it will tell you your carbon footprint. Download or print the results.

3. Identify carbon-saving actions that make sense at your congregation by working through the 50 questions on the following Carbon Checklist. This is best done when your whole team is assembled; it will take 60-90 minutes to answer the questions and prioritize your next steps.

4. Make changes to reduce your carbon by following the suggested actions we’ve noted in the worksheet. Many of these are free or low-cost. Others will require purchases and we’ve tried to include how you can purchase those items for less. The suggested actions with a star next to them provide some of the biggest carbon savings possible.

5. Add this eﬀort to your annual meeting agenda. Each year you can re-measure your footprint at www.CoolCongregations.com and celebrate the progress you’ve made.

Remember, you aren’t alone doing this. We give thanks to all the people who have been part of this eﬀort. Feel free to contact your state Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) leader or the IPL national oﬃce for help.

Interfaith Power and Light www.InterfaithPowerandLight.org

A map of the IPL state aﬃlaites with links to contact information: hp://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.htm

This guide was developed by Faith in Place/Illinois Interfaith Power & Light in partnership with the Climate Action Task Force of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Special thanks to Rachelle Ankney, Joyce Coﬀee, Juliana Glassco, David Glover, Mark Granfors, Kris Kaar, Jim Mastaler-Gutermuth, The Rev. Brooke Petersen, Nicolai Schousboe, James Schwab, Sara Spoonheim, Ken Westlake and Bill Bradlee.

Building EnvElopE

Checklist

1. Are all windows and doors properly aligned and operational?

2. Is weather-stripping and caulking in place and intact on windows, doors, conduits, piping, exterior joints, or other areas of inﬁltration?

3. Are doors and/or windows separating conditioned from non-conditioned areas (including outdoors) utilized properly?

4. Are all windows double paned?

5. Is there insulation between conditioned and unconditioned spaces?

6. Is there at least 7 inches of insulation in your ceiling/roof?

7. Are blinds and curtains used to help insulate the building?

Actions

Check doors and windows and ﬁx any problems

Caulk, weatherstrip and foam seal around doors, windows and other spaces to plug air leaks.

Make signs asking people to close doors and/or windows.

Replace with double-pane Energy Star windows for approx. 1,500 lbs/year carbon reduction per window replaced. If you can’t replace windows, add air-gap window ﬁlms to seal leaky windows. Aach storm glazing to the sashes of windows that open (good for stained glass).

Insulate the ceiling, walls and basement. Where practical, cover windows and through the wall cooling units when not in use. In windy areas, install wind screens to protect outside doors. Consider adding reﬂective or heat absorbing ﬁlm to minimize solar heating in summer and heat loss in winter. Proper insulation can save you 25% on your heating bills.

Install insulation where it is lacking and repair any roof damage.

Keep curtains and blinds closed at night during the winter and during the day in the summer (this may mean instructing oﬃce and custodial staﬀ to open/close blinds in the mornings and evenings).

HEating and Cooling SyStEmS

Checklist

8. Are thermostats on heating/cooling units safe from oc-cupant manipulation?

9. Are space temperatures similar to thermostat seings?

10. Are thermostat seings adjusted for changes in seasons?

11. Does your congregation refrain from heating or cooling unoccupied or lile-used areas unnecessarily?

12. Is heating/cooling equipment set to start as occupants arrive and/or set to stop operating during last hour of oc-cupancy?

13. Does air ﬂow to space feel adequate and consistent from one space to another?

14. Are exhaust system (i.e.. restroom fans) operation programmed?

15. Do air ﬁlters and heating/cooling coils receive scheduled maintenance?

16. Is duct or pipe insulation present and intact?

Actions

Make sure that thermostats are locked or inaccessible so that occupants do not tamper with them.

Thermostats should be in a central location, away from areas sub-ject to extreme temperature ﬂuctuations (e.g. a window or heating or cooling unit)..

Adjust for the seasons. Turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer (try 68° in winter and 78° in sum-mer). Use outside air rather than AC for cooling and ventilation whenever possible. It may be easier or more eﬃcient to have separate thermostats for controlling heating and cooling.

Try to schedule activities in spaces that can be conditioned sepa-rately from the rest of the building. In other words, use your cooled/ heated space eﬃciently. Use spot heaters/coolers in large spaces with low occupancy.

Reduce thermostat seings by at least 10° F and/or shut down AC units at nights and for any long period of time when the space will be unoccupied (55° is good for winter). A programmable thermostat to automatically adjust temperatures can help wi this tremendously. Experiment with start-up and shut-down times to keep the building more comfortable while it is occupied (especially at worship times). During the last hour of occupancy, reduce or turn oﬀ the heating and cooling, allowing the building to “coast.”

Post signs reminding people not to put objects in places where they will obstruct air ﬂow.

Stop using unnecessary exhaust fans and re-wire restroom exhaust fans to operate only when lights are on.

Replace air ﬁlters regularly. Develop a maintenance sched-ule and install ﬁlter pressure-drop gauges. This can reduce energy costs by up to 5%!

Install/replace installation.

HEating

21. Is system insulation present and intact?

22. Is the hot water system de-centralized with small do-mestic hot water heaters instead of a large central boiler?

18. Are boilers maintained on a scheduled basis?

Checklist

Cooling

17. Are air inlets or outlets clean and unobstructed?

Actions

If your water heater is more than 5 years old, wrap it in an insulating jacket.

20. Is hot water temperature set so that it doesn’t scald?

Schedule regular maintenance for your AC. Make sure that your AC’s condensers or coils are clean, unclogged and functional. Re-place your old AC with a more eﬃcient one.

Reduce water temperatures to the lowest seing during unoccu-pied periods either manually or with an automatic control device.

domEStiC Hot WatER

19. Are refrigeration condensers or coils clean, unclogged and/or functioning eﬃciently?

Replace your standard electric water heater with a high-eﬃcien-cy Energy Star unit. (On-demand water heaters are the most eﬃcient.)

23. Are water temperatures reduced during unoccupied periods?

Keep your water heater’s thermostat no higher than 120° F.

Check air duct openings to make sure nothing is blocking the air ﬂow. Also see #13.

Install a new Energy Star furnace or boiler if you need one. This could mean huge operational savings- both in carbon emied and in heating bills! Schedule annual HVAC maintenance check and stick to them.

ligHting

Checklist

24. Are ﬂourescent or LED lamps used instead of incan-descents in oﬃces, meeting spaces, hallways, and sanctu-aries (wherever possible) ? Are your exit signs LED?

25. When burned out ﬂuorescent lamps and/or ballasts have been replaced, have more eﬃcient lights been installed (i.e. lower was in sunny rooms used primarily during the day)?

26. Is decorative lighting used sparingly and/or controlled optimally? In ﬁxtures where ﬂuorescent lamps have been removed, have the ballasts been disconnected?

27. Is lighting always turned oﬀ in unoccupied areas?

28. Are lamps and ﬁxtures clean? Do ceilings and other room surfaces adequately reﬂect light because they are clean, bright and free from dirt?

29. Is daylight used eﬀectively (i.e. work stations are close to windows)?

30. Is security/outdoor lighting automatically controlled and/or do lighting levels stay within adequate boundaries (i.e. they’re not excessive)?

Actions

Replace old light bulbs with compact ﬂuorescent light bulbs and save 180 lbs. of carbon per year for each bulb. Go to www. ShopIPL.org to get deals on CFLs, LED exit signs and other energy savers. If every U.S. home replaced just one light bulb with a compact ﬂourescent bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Replace T12 ﬂourescent lights with T8 bulbs (will need retroﬁing). New ballasts and bulbs can be found at www. ShopIPL.org.

Don’t use more light than you need. Get rid of extraneous bulbs and disconnect their ballasts. Replace unnecessary ﬂourescent tubes with “dummy” types that don’t draw very much current but still provide uniform lighting.

Turn oﬀ the lights, make signs, install motion sensors or timed switches.

Dust buildup reduces reﬂectivity and eﬀectiveness. Create a regular cleaning schedule for lamps, light ﬁxtures, ceilings and other reﬂective surfaces.

Use natural lighting whenever you can. Put work stations next to windows and turn oﬀ the lights when it’s sunny.

Don’t forget that all of the above suggestions, especially #’s 24, 25, and 27, apply to outside and security lighting as well.

REfRigERation and anCillaRy

Checklist

31. Is your freezer free of icy build-up?

32. Is your refrigerator temperature set correctly (i.e. food toward the back top is sometimes frozen)?

33. Is kitchen equipment used eﬃciently (i.e. exhaust hood fans oﬀ when not in use, coﬀee makers oﬀ when coﬀee is ﬁnished brewing)?

34. Is laundry equipment used eﬃciently if it is present?

35. Are freezers and refrigerators kept full?

36. Are electronic devices and oﬃce equipment turned oﬀ and unplugged when not in use?

37. Are LED Holiday lights used?

38. Are LED exit signs installed?

Actions

Make sure that your refrigerator/freezer condensers or coils are clean, unclogged and functional.

Make sure that your refrigerator is set to be adequately cool, but no colder than necessary.

Use your kitchen eﬃciently (another place for signs). Cook with lids on, only preheat ovens for baked goods, provide ovens and fryers with loads all of the time they are heated and on, shut down exhaust hood fans when not required, and use microwave ovens to heat small quantities of food.

Replace ineﬃcient washers with Energy Star appliances (visit www.ShopIPL.com for discounted rates), wash full loads, clean lint screens before/after each use, use cold water rather than hot whenever possible, and hang laundry to dry.

Save 2300 lbs of CO2/year by replacing refrigerators more than 10 yrs. old and other old appliances with Energy Star ones, and dispose of unnecessary or unused old appliances. Visit www.ShopIPL.org to order Sears Energy Star applianc-es at a discounted rate. They will haul away your old appliance when they bring the new one. If there is a lot of extra space in your refrigerator or freezer, ﬁll it up with jugs of water.

Cut your phantom load by turning oﬀ computers, chargers and other standby electronics by unplugging or using a power strip. (Phantom loads are the energy that appliances use when they are plugged in, even when they are not turned on. They account for 6% of electricity usage in the US.)

Switching to LED lights on one tree will save 122 lbs. of carbon per season.

Visit www.ShopIPL.org to buy LED exit signs. Exit sign requirements diﬀer from state to state, so brush up on local codes before you buy any new signs.

43. Does your congregation make good use of its land?

Build a culture for biking, encourage it by installing bike racks on your church property and hold promotional “bike to worship” days.

42. Do you maintain pesticide-free outdoor lawns and plantings with manual tools?

vaRiouS & SundRiES

39. Does a congregational car sharing program exist?

Checklist

40. Do congregation-owned vehicles receive proper maintenance?

Think about planting a community garden or a native prairie. Plant trees. Tear up impermeable surfaces that aren’t being used and replace them with plants - a lawn has less than 10% of the water absorption capacity of a natural woodland (US EPA).

Encourage sermons that educate about caring for creation. Use organic, seasonal and/or poed altar ﬂower, organic communion wine and bread, etc. Visit www.theregenerationproject.org/Re-sources.htm for resources and ideas.

tRanSpoRtation

Regular tune-ups, maintenance of tire pressure and changing the air ﬁlter will increase fuel eﬃciency and decrease pollution.

Encourage carpooling and organize a car sharing system for your congregation. Find out the public transportation stops that are closest to your church and encourage people to use them, even if it means organizing a shule system to get them to and from worship.

Actions

41. Are bike racks installed at your congregation?

Consider manual tools. Gasoline powered landscape equipment (mowers, trimmers, blowers, chainsaws) account for over 5% of our urban air pollution. Reduce or stop use of pesticides. Residential application of pesticides is typically at a rate of 20 times that of farmers per acre. (Statistics from the US EPA).

44. Do you lift up environmental issues in visible ways during worship?

Organize activities and integrate environmental issues into the youth curriculum, or have your youth group sell CFLs as a fundraiser and a way to help people reduce energy and save money at home.

45. Have you ﬁgured out ways to get your youth involved in all of this?

goodS and SERviCES

Checklist

46. Are oﬃce supplies and cleaning products purchased in bulk to reduce packaging?

47. Are foods and refreshments purchased sustainably (as locally and organic as possible)?

48. Do you purchase ecosensitive products (post-consumer paper and petroleum-free, chemical sensitive cleaning products)?

WaStE

49. Does your congregation recycle paper, plastic, glass, and/or metal?

50. Does your congregation compost food/yard waste?

Actions

Avoid unnecessary and excessive packaging wherever possible.

Buy local products when possible to reduce the distance food needs to be transported. Buy organic to reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Invest in organic, recycled or reusable, and sustainable: food, oﬃce supplies, paper products, cleaning supplies, furniture and ﬁxtures, textiles, printing and publishing, and construction and renovations. Ask your custodian or cleaning service to ﬁnd out which eco-friendly products they prefer and would be willing to start using.

Check out local recycling information at www.earth911.org or your local government’s website. For every ton of aluminum recycled, 10 tons of carbon dioxide are saved. For every ton of glass, 0.32 tons of CO2 are saved, and for every ton of plastic, approximately 1.7 tons of CO2 are saved.

Even if your kitchen waste is too much to handle, you can reuse your yard clippings as mulch. According to the EPA, yard wastes, mostly grass clippings, comprise 20% of municipal solid waste collected and most still ends up in landﬁlls. Find out more on how to compost at hp://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/ composting-yard-waste.html, hp://www.gardenguides.com/ how-to/tipstechniques/planning/compost.asp, or hp://www. howtocompost.org/ .

The suggested actions with a star next to them provide some of the biggest carbon savings possible.

The statistics above, unless otherwise cited, are from the Cool Congregations program, originally implemented by Iowa Interfaith Power Light.