There is no denying that as we move down this road of making everything as ecologically sound as possible that the business of retrofitting existing building is going to be big. After all there are a lot of corporate skyscrapers out there that were build without any concept of what it meant to be green.
Probably one of the biggest retrofitting jobs to date will be the work being done to the Empire State Building. The project, a joint initiative between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Clinton Climate Initiative, to bring the building icon will be lead by Johnson Controls. The company has targeted eight individual projects out of the 60 possibilities based on which ones would return the largest saving in both money and energy. A few of those eight projects are
Window Light Retrofit: Refurbishment of approximately 6,500 thermopane glass windows, using existing glass and sashes to create triple-glazed insulated panels with new components that dramatically reduce both summer heat load and winter heat loss
Tenant Lighting, Daylighting and Plug Upgrades: Introduction of improved lighting designs, daylighting controls, and plug load occupancy sensors in common areas and tenant spaces to reduce electricity costs and cooling loads.
Whole-Building Control System Upgrade: Upgrade of existing building control system to optimize HVAC operation as well as provide more detailed sub-metering information.
Tenant Energy Management Systems: Introduction of individualized, web-based power usage systems for each tenant to allow more efficient management of power usage.
The entire project will cost an estimated $20 billion but will reduce energy consumption by 38 percent as well as produce energy savings of $4.4 million per year which should enable the build to attain a LEED Gold certified label.
The makeover of the Empire State Build is supposed to be completed by the end of 2010.
[hat tip to EcoGeekhttp://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2670/]
