Ten Almaden Invests in Building Operations and Lowers Energy Use 3.5% and Electric Utility Bills by $9,000 Annually
This Class-A, ENERGY STAR building installed lobby LEDs, improved economization for free cooling, and fine-tuned startup & shutdown BMS programming schedules.
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130 fixtures, in the 3-story tall lobby, were upgraded to LEDs as part of a utility incentive program.
The building lowered its baseload and temperature response energy use by 19,032 kWh in July 2018 compared to the year prior, as shown shaded in blue.
Uniting Hi-tech Building Operations With a World-Class Tenant Environment
The Higher Purpose Buildings program at KBS combines concierge-level service with state-of-the-art buildings, delivering productive and unique tenant environments with exceptional building operations.
As part of a utility incentive program, the building upgraded many lights to new LEDs. This included 130 lighting fixtures in the main lobby, the entire parking garage—swapping out the 4 foot, 2 lamp T8s and ballast while retaining the fixtures themselves, saving 304,310 kWh (72%)—and each of the garage’s elevator-service lobbies. A major tech tenant, occupying 20% of the building, also installed new LEDs. And equipped with accurate smart meter data analytics on electricity use, the Chief Engineer upgraded the building’s BMS programming. This included updates to the free cooling economization protocols and refined temperature settings for each day of the week. These settings are now indexed on both the temperature outside and the heat energy present inside the building at the start of the week, and how that changes as the week progresses. Related refinements were made to the startup and shutdown times for each day of the work week.
Exceptional building operations is hard work, but seeing the success in the Measurement & Verification is fun. Fine-tuning our building’s response to indoor and outdoor temperature, time of day and day of the week, and the LED updates are just two examples. Our elevator dispatch system upgrade exceeds ADA standards while improving travel time nearly 100%!
Maintaining an exceptional operating environment for our tenants is our main focus. This beautiful ENERGY STAR building, at the corner of two major streets here in Silicon Valley, delivers on that promise with the event space, lounge, and wellness center in unison with the latest lighting technology and building operations best practices.