Environmental Stewardship
Energy News
He earns the gold star
It makes sense that someone associated with learning would earn a gold star for outstanding work. In Bryan Visscher’s case, the star is gold on a bold blue background.
Visscher, maintenance and operations director for the Wenatchee School District, led his staff to earn the national Energy Star designation for energy efficiency at the school district’s main office and at four elementary schools – Newbery, Lewis and Clark, Columbia and Mission View. The award means the buildings rank in the top 25 percent nationally for energy efficiency.
Visscher and his staff use Energy Star Portfolio Manager software to track energy use at 12 schools and three district buildings. The five buildings that received Energy Star plaques in December had been performing well all along, Visscher said. But the software has been especially useful, he said, to identify buildings that need attention.
Visscher said a couple of schools were identified recently through the use of the Energy Star software as poor performers, ranking in the single digits out of a possible 100. Visscher’s staff worked with a building controls contractor to make adjustments to the heating and air conditioning system at one school that are saving the school district $11,000 a year. “It’s not a top performer yet, but it’s now an above-average building,” Visscher said.
Heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems are usually the big energy hogs in schools, he said.
The same is true for homes, where hot-water heating is also a major energy user.
The Energy Star software used by Visscher comes from the same agency that gives the stamp of approval to energy-efficient household appliances and promotes use of watt-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
Chelan County PUD presented Visscher with a certificate acknowledging his leadership in energy efficiency at a school board meeting in December.
“It’s a team effort,” Visscher said, “which also includes building principals and staff.”
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