James Farrington, Saint Michael's College Associate Director of Physical Plant/Engineering and Construction was project manager for the college's upgrade and repair to their McCarthy Arts Center on campus in Colchester, Vt. (Vermont Daily News photo/Alden Pellett)

 

 

Colchester, Vt. – If a person could convince 61 people to stop driving a car for a whole year in order to save on greenhouse gas emissions, most people would be impressed. When St. Michael’s College decided to upgrade and repair their McCarthy Arts Center, figuratively speaking, that’s what they did. 

The upgrade to the building’s mechanical systems is estimated by experts to eliminate the equivalent in CO2 emissions as the electricity use of 42 homes for one year. The energy efficient improvements cost the college $750,000, but they hope to save about $68,000 annually.

“The system was 40 years old, it was obsolete, we needed to update and repair it,” said James Farrington, Saint Michael’s associate director of physical plant/engineering and construction. “We took the approach of getting a very energy efficient design that would save us energy and money down the road,” he said.

Farrington was the college’s project manager; Alan Sutton, Saint Michael’s HVAC supervisor, headed controls integration and operation details; Steve Poole and Vermont Heating and Ventilating, were the design/build contractors for the project.

At the college’s refurbished Arts Center, Tim Perrin of Efficiency Vermont and Steve Poole of Vermont Heating and Ventilating Company recently addressed a group of engineers touring the building.

“Instead of simply pursuing the least expensive option, Saint Michael’s looked holistically at energy, operating, and life-cycle costs for comparison,” Tim Perrin of Efficiency Vermont said.  “The college’s savings of some $68,000 a year will be the result of avoided natural gas and electricity use each year,” he elaborated.  The sum is savings coupled with incentives from Efficiency Vermont, estimated by Mr. Perrin at $30,000,  and from Vermont Gas at $1,500, annually.
Perrin said the new equipment will reduce the Saint Michael’s College carbon footprint by 5,660 tons of carbon dioxide, or essentially, the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 61 passenger vehicles.

 -Vermont Daily News staff report