Overall Rating Bronze - expired
Overall Score 36.94
Liaison David Greenwood
Submission Date Nov. 12, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Lakehead University
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.84 / 6.00 Andrew Carr
STARS Researcher
Centre for Place and Sustainability Studies
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total building energy consumption, all sources (transportation fuels excluded):
Performance Year Baseline Year
Total building energy consumption 184,031.47 MMBtu 227,591.55 MMBtu

Purchased electricity and steam:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Grid-purchased electricity 71,335.83 MMBtu 78,763.27 MMBtu
District steam/hot water 0 MMBtu 0 MMBtu

Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Gross floor area 119,619.40 Gross square meters 111,248.70 Gross square meters

Floor area of energy intensive space, performance year::
Floor Area
Laboratory space 6,912.90 Square meters
Healthcare space 0 Square meters
Other energy intensive space

Degree days, performance year (base 65 °F)::
Degree days (see help icon above)
Heating degree days 5,271.03
Cooling degree days 111.60

Source-site ratios::
Source-Site Ratio (see help icon above)
Grid-purchased electricity 2.05
District steam/hot water 1.20

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or 3-year periods)::
Start Date End Date
Performance Year May 1, 2010 April 30, 2013
Baseline Year May 1, 2004 April 30, 2007

A brief description of when and why the building energy consumption baseline was adopted:

Between 2004 and 2005 Lakehead completed extensive energy upgrades including a massive project to convert the district heating system from steam to hot water. Another project involved purchasing a new more efficient chiller system to reduce energy use by building cooling and a series of building lighting and occupancy controls. More information about the renovations can be found here: http://sustainability.lakeheadu.ca/energy-conservation-initiatives/.

The 2004-2005 fiscal year to the 2006-2007 fiscal year average was use to attempt to include some of the energy usage from before the renovations were completed. 2004 was the earliest electrical use data available at Lakehead University. The rolling average was used to normalize energy use data.


A brief description of any building temperature standards employed by the institution:

Unofficially, the University has a range of acceptable temperature values depending on the building. In the Summer, building temperatures are ideally kept between 20-23 degrees Celsius. In the Winter, building temperatures are ideally kept between 18-20 degrees Celsius. This helps mitigate unnecessary energy use by the Institution. Additionally acceptable temperature ranges vary slightly during the night time. For example in the Summer months it is acceptable for temperatures to get up to 25-27 degrees Celsius as typically the buildings are not in use. This is considered acceptable as long as normal temperatures are restored by early morning. Local users can also set temperatures at night if they remain in their offices. More information can be found here: http://sustainability.lakeheadu.ca/energy-conservation-initiatives/


A brief description of any light emitting diode (LED) lighting employed by the institution:

Lakehead University underwent a major transition to LED lights from 2004 through 2006. In any place on campus where they can be used, LED's are utilized. There are some cases on campus where the use of LED lights is impractical such as in the outdoor parking lights. LED lights do not fair well in the cold Northwestern Ontario and have a low lifetime and don't provide an acceptable amount of light when it gets cold.


A brief description of any occupancy and/or vacancy sensors employed by the institution:

Most class rooms on campus have light sensors in classrooms which turn off the lights if they don't sense motion within a 15 minute time period. This includes classrooms in the ATAC, Ryan Building, Braun Building and many more major academic buildings.


A brief description of any passive solar heating employed by the institution:

No passive solar heating is employed by the institution by design, however anecdotally there are places on campus where active solar heating is very effective.


A brief description of any ground-source heat pumps employed by the institution:

There are no ground-source heat pumps employed by the institution.


A brief description of any cogeneration technologies employed by the institution:

There are no cogeneration technologies employed by the institution.


A brief description of any building recommissioning or retrofit program employed by the institution:

As noted above, many of the buildings on campus underwent a major transition from district heating via hot-water to district heating via steam. Additionally many have had motion sensors and LED lights installed.


A brief description of any energy metering and management systems employed by the institution:

Lakehead has publicly view-able televisions which show the energy use in real time in the ATAC and in the Agora. These however are considered by Hugh Briggs to be estimations. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) provides 100% of Lakehead University's power and is power generation is metered by OPG. similarly 100% of Lakehead's natural gas is provided by Union Gas which is also responsible for metering the amount of natural gas used.


A brief description of the institution's program to replace energy-consuming appliances, equipment and systems with high efficiency alternatives:

As equipment expires or travels through its natural lifespan, Lakehead employee's actively search for more efficient models. Hugh Briggs of physical plant noted that generally high efficiency appliances and equipment are easy to find. This however is not engraved in formal policy.


A brief description of any energy-efficient landscape design initiatives employed by the institution:

There are no energy-efficient landscape design initiatives employed by Lakehead University.


A brief description of any vending machine sensors, lightless machines, or LED-lit machines employed by the institution:

Most of the vending machines at Lakehead University have motion detectors which turn off internal lights if no motion is detected within a set time period. This time period slightly varies by the machine but is never longer then 30 minutes. It should be noted that not all vending machines on campus have sensors and some remain lit 24/7.


A brief description of other energy conservation and efficiency initiatives employed by the institution:

For more information on energy efficiency initiatives see: http://sustainability.lakeheadu.ca/energy-conservation-initiatives/


The website URL where information about the institution’s energy conservation and efficiency initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

https://www.lakeheadu.ca/about/news-and-events/news/archive/2004/node/13660

Lakehead's energy use figures are a reflection of between 90-95% of energy use on campus as the remaining 5-10% is metered independently and physical plant could not readily produce historic figures.

In the future Lakehead would like to be able to report electricity and natural gas use independently as natural gas service is only available in some buildings, while electricity is available in all buildings. Thus the "Gross Area of Building Space" figure over represents the amount of space which actually consumes Natural Gas.


https://www.lakeheadu.ca/about/news-and-events/news/archive/2004/node/13660

Lakehead's energy use figures are a reflection of between 90-95% of energy use on campus as the remaining 5-10% is metered independently and physical plant could not readily produce historic figures.

In the future Lakehead would like to be able to report electricity and natural gas use independently as natural gas service is only available in some buildings, while electricity is available in all buildings. Thus the "Gross Area of Building Space" figure over represents the amount of space which actually consumes Natural Gas.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.