Student union officials plan to install a new energy-efficient air handling system in Ackerman Union and Kerckhoff Hall in the next few months, which is expected to save $22,500 annually in electrical costs.
The Associated Students UCLA board of directors voted unanimously last week to allocate $90,000 to replace the buildings’ current heating and cooling system, which costs $130,700 annually in electricity.
The overhaul is expected to cut ASUCLA’s air-handling costs by about 17 percent annually and save 500,000 kilowatt hours a year in energy. This would keep 750,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air, and the energy savings would be equivalent to the yearly power use of about 42 average American homes.
As part of the project, ASUCLA will replace the motors of the current air heating and cooling system and install a thermoregulation device inside the buildings, said Roy Champawat, director of the student union.
The current air-handling system, installed in the mid-1990s, only has two settings, on and off, which is inefficient in heating and cooling, Champawat said. The new system will let airflow vary depending on room usage and other factors, such as outside temperature, he added.
“(This system) will give us better control and save power by not running (the air conditioning) unnecessarily high,” Champawat said.
In addition to the new air drives, ASUCLA plans to purchase a “BuildingIQ” system that will self-monitor heat patterns in the student union throughout the day, he said. The device will take account of current and projected weather and give estimates on how long certain rooms will take to heat or cool down.
Upgrading the current system will pay itself back within four years, said CJ Gabbe, ASUCLA graduate student representative and an urban planning doctoral student in the Luskin School of Public Affairs.
“(The new system) meets all of our objectives we are looking for in terms of sustainability and cost savings,” Gabbe said. “This is the epitome of what I like to see, all of these criteria.”
The plan to replace the vent motors will cause no major construction since ductwork does not need to be changed, Champawat said.
The board has not set a definitive timeline or found a contractor for the project, but Champawat said he hopes the work will be completed in two to four months. He added that he thinks construction will not disturb students because it will be minor and done after business hours.
There are no current plans to extend the project into other UCLA buildings, said Tod Tamberg, a UCLA spokesperson, in an email.