Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 62.11
Liaison Natalie Sobrinski
Submission Date June 16, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Muhlenberg College
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.82 / 6.00 Tim Korn
Maintenance Supervisor
Plant Operations
"---" 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 100,297.80 MMBtu 110,859.40 MMBtu

Purchased electricity and steam:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Grid-purchased electricity 69,281.40 MMBtu 70,470.10 MMBtu
District steam/hot water 0 MMBtu 0 MMBtu

Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Gross floor area 1,472,679 Gross square feet 1,394,893 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive space, performance year::
Floor Area
Laboratory space 45,756 Square feet
Healthcare space 0 Square feet
Other energy intensive space

Degree days, performance year (base 65 °F)::
Degree days (see help icon above)
Heating degree days 6,157
Cooling degree days 693

Source-site ratios::
Source-Site Ratio (see help icon above)
Grid-purchased electricity 3.14
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 July 1, 2014 June 30, 2015
Baseline Year July 1, 2007 June 30, 2008

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

Building baseline chosen because it represented a high energy use period.


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

The campus New Science, Trumbower, Shankweiler, Seegers, Trexler Pavilion and Moyer buildings all work under the Niagara/Tridium Building Automation System. Set back temperatures are scheduled through the Tridium BAS based on building occupancy.


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

Muhlenberg College uses Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology in the following locations:

• * Stairways in Moyer and additional recessed lights in hallway
• * President's House
• * East Hall through renovation
• * Exterior lighting through attrition/new installs
• * new office space construction/renovation in Seegers Union, Moyer and New Science
• * Art Gallery & Galleria of C/A
• * Pavilion main area lighting & accent lighting on top level
• * Shankweiler bird display cases
• * Ettinger recessed lights in tiered classrooms
• * Cobra head lights on Back Drive
• * General's Quarters seating area renovation
• * Exit signs through renovation/attrition
• * Indicator lights above fire extinguishers
• * Seegers' Dining restaurant of Generals' Quarters


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

Muhlenberg College uses motion, infrared, and/or light sensors to reduce energy use for lighting in at least one building.
We are using motion occupancy sensors for lighting in the restrooms of Ettinger, Moyer, Haas, Trumbower and New Science.
The New Science building has a programmable lighting control system that enables us to schedule lighting shut downs
All exterior lighting is on Photocell technology
March 2012, all major buildings have lighting sensors in at least one room


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

Solar Passive is used in the following locations: The Solar corridor, Robertson, South Hall
Robertson and South Hall were designed with full glass southern exposure. During the winter months the full range of solar gain is introduced into a three story section of both buildings. During the summer moths the tree lined exterior shades the area and reduces the solar impact. Life Sports center was designed with a solar corridor which consists of a 115’ X 36’ angled curtain wall with full southern exposure.


A brief description of any ground-source heat pumps employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any cogeneration technologies employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any building recommissioning or retrofit program employed by the institution:

Muhlenberg College benchmarks all building utility usage to define buildings that are operating outside what would be considered an acceptable range. When buildings are identified as being outside of an acceptable operating range, further analysis of building envelope, systems and operations are completed to understand current performance. The analysis consists at a minimum a full internal investigation of equipment, utilities and building automation programming. If sufficient information regarding building performance is not identified then an ASRAE level II audit is performed. Findings from these investigations have led to retro commissioning and re-commissioning of the following buildings on campus.

Baker Center for the Arts
Moyer Hall
East Hall
Trexler Library
Seegers Union


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

Muhlenberg College does not use a centralized energy management system that allows the College to track energy consumption and performance in multiple buildings in a central location.
We are using a few different management systems on campus such as Johnson Metasys, M3, Tridium, E-Mon, and Andover. The systems allow us to operate equipment, schedule setbacks and trend data. We are working toward utilizing 1 BAS overlay that will bring all of these systems under one data-base.
As of March 2012 Muhlenberg has installed a centralized system to monitor a variety of buildings. Legacy systems are still used as well.


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

As part of Muhlenberg College’s Sustainable operations and maintenance policy and purchasing policy all newly purchased campus appliances are Energy Star rated and laundry equipment is CEE Tier 3 or better. All boiler and hot water making system are considered to be high efficiency condensing boilers. See link for more information


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

At least two machine on campus has a sensor to cycle the refrigeration compressor on and off.


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

There are entropy wheels in our new systems. Building air ventilation systems have methods to reduce unnecessary airflow in times of low occupancy by the use of occupancy sensors, set-back controls, CO2 monitoring and scheduling of VAV airflows through the Building automation systems. All new boiler system installations are installed utilizing the most efficient design criteria by reducing excessive temperatures in the buildings and lowering heating system operating temperatures; They also have the capability to shut down systems completely when not necessary. Existing systems are retrofitted under these same guidelines. Lighting systems include the installation of sensors and controls to detect occupancy and reduce output during unoccupied times. See Link for more details


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