Cleveland State University
IN-2: Innovation 2

Cleveland State University is one of only 34 colleges and universities partnering with the U.S. EPA and Department of Energy's Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs 21) program dedicated to improving the environmental performance of labs in the U.S. The Labs 21 Technical Team assisted CSU with a retrofit project that was known at the time to be the only lab building project in the country financed solely based on energy savings.

Beginning in early 2008, the Science (SI) and Science and Research Center (SR) buildings at Cleveland State University, constructed during the early 1970s and 1980s, respectively, underwent the removal or replacement of their outdated, malfunctioning, and inefficient fume hoods. In the years since their construction, the two buildings' fume hood ventilation systems had deteriorated significantly due to wear and tear, leading to numerous complications and equipment failures. After evaluating various options for fixing and/or upgrading its equipment, CSU decided to replace its fume hoods with the latest, energy-efficient models (or remove those hoods deemed unnecessary) and install variable frequency drives and a heat recovery system in both buildings. The Labs21 Technical Team assisted CSU during the proposal phase of the project by evaluating the submitted proposals and advising the university on which prospective team would be the best fit for the project.

As part of the renovation project, replaced 173 constant air volume fume hoods with 118 new variable air volume hoods and eliminated 55 hoods entirely. Also installed were 112 new exhaust variable air valves, 166 dual-duct variable air volume boxes, and 114 room air quality monitoring sensors. Four air handling units were modified from single-fan, dual-duct systems into single-fan, single-variable, hot/cold air duct systems. All systems include heat recovery coils to recover heat from exhaust air or steam condensate.

In addition to replacing the buildings' outdated fume hood equipment, CSU also enhanced the ventilation systems' efficiency by maintaining six air changes per hour (ACH) during occupied times and two ACH during unoccupied times. Occupancy sensors were installed in all rooms to ensure the proper switching of air changes based on the occupancy of each room. Operator-activated emergency buttons were also installed to change to 12 ACH in case of emergency.

These upgrades reduced SR's energy consumption from an average of nearly 300,000 British thermal units (BTUs) per square foot per year to approximately 84,000 BTUs per square foot per year. SI's energy consumption decreased from 170,000 BTUs per square foot per year to just over 52,000 BTUs per square foot per year. The total cost of the project was slightly more than $10 million, with a projected payback period of five years. The project was completed at tje end of 2008.