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New Mid Michigan Community Action Agency Building Incorporates Efficiency
Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth, February 11, 2008 - Energy efficiency
was one of the primary premises
while designing and constructing the new facility for
Mid Michigan Community Action
Agency. Everything from the furnace and heating
units to the automated lighting was
considered to maintain optimal efficiency measures
on this state-of-the-art building.
Generally a building of this size would require four to five large furnaces to heat its
22,785 square feet. However to ensure the best possible heating plan, 15 small high
energy furnaces were installed to permit "zoning" areas. This allows specific areas
of the building to be warm or cool depending on its usage, number of occupants, and
openness of a shared area. Additionally, the furnaces are preprogrammed allowing
for maximum use during the workday, while automatically being lowered during
evening and weekend hours. This not only saves the agency money on its fuel bills,
but also lowers the overall consumption of fuel. The furnaces are also designed with
interchanges that process the air from outside of the building before getting to the
furnace units. This provides for tempered heat which further reduces the cost
of heating.
The building is also highly insulated in its walls and floors adding to the efficiency
measures. Through a valuable donation of the Styrofoam insulation from the Dow
Chemical Company, the builder installed insulation in all of the outer walls and under
the concrete slab. This is usually provided around the outer six feet of the floor, but in
this case the entire area was insulated. "The ground temperature is at 55 degrees. If you
only insulate the outer area of the floor, you will still need to heat the middle area above
the ground temperature. Since we insulated the entire area we can now maintain the
warmth from the ground up," states MMCAA Chief Executive Officer, Gary Gilbert.
The lighting units are also programmed throughout the facility to further save on
energy costs. In some areas that are only used periodically, such as restrooms or storage
rooms, the lights only come on when there's movement. In other areas, the lights turn
on and off at specific times that correspond with the workday schedule. The building
also possesses thermal windows, which absorb the sunlight from the outdoors, and
provides passive heat into the building. "There are windows throughout the facility
allowing for us to receive the most natural lighting possible reducing our energy costs
even more," stated Gilbert. "We researched several options and found that employees
actually work better in environments that have more natural lighting."
According to Dave Peters, MMCAA Housing Services Director, "the agency promotes
energy education with its customers in the housing programs and we decided that we
can now role model what we teach. Saving the company or homeowner on energy costs
ultimately saves our community and state on fuel consumption--something that needs
to be done globally especially in this time of high heating costs and concern for fuel
supply in years to come."
"One of the goals of building a new administrative complex was to save the agency
in operational costs. One of the main contributors to savings was our electrical and
heating usage in six different locations," stated Jill Sutton, MMCAA Grants &
Development Director. "We are so fortunate to have this new facility that will save
us thousands of dollars in overall costs by combing all of our Clare County sites into
one. We can now use these savings to help even more families in need."
