Henry County supervisors review courthouse energy audit

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County Courthouse underwent an energy audit on Thursday morning so the supervisors could learn how to make the building more energy efficient and cut costs for the county.

?There?s a lot of buildings that are worse off than this one,? said Emily Rice from the Office of Energy Independence. Rice is working under a state contract to for the state energy program to loan out money for project improving energy efficiency. The state is working to loan out the money by the spring of next year or else it goes back to the federal government.

Rice cited that for gas and electric, the courthouse has an operating cost of about $0.73 to $1.00 per square foot. She said that the goal is to shoot for $1.00 per square foot.

The biggest improvement the county could make, said Rice, is retrofitting the light fixtures in the building, which could save the county 30 percent in electricity use. Just by replacing all of the four-foot fixtures in the building to the recommended type of lamp could save the county $1,500-1,600 per year.

Rice also suggested installing occupancy sensors to areas such as the vault and restroom.

?Adding occupancy sensors, depending on the traffic, could bring significant savings,? said Rice. Such sensors cause the lights to only be on when the room is in use and could save the county $200 per year.

As far as the courthouse?s heating and cooling system, Rice was unable to give any specific recommendations until she has time to research the best options for the building. She did say that in Iowa typically air conditioning projects don?t have enough of a payback to warrant completion.

?There?s not a lot of run time,? said Rice, saying that air conditioning units are not used long enough during the year like they are in other areas, such as Arizona.

For heating, the courthouse currently uses a steam system. Although steam is less efficient than a hot-water system, if the county were to change ducting would have to be installed, which would not only expand the scope of the project but also could affect the aesthetics of the courthouse.

The idea of a geothermal system was mentioned, but it was said that the payback on such a project would probably be too long.

In order to properly evaluate and model the project, the county would have to enroll in the program and there would be a cost for enrollment. Rice said that it is possible that Alliant Energy could do the modeling and then she would be able to use that information to plan for the county.