University of Michigan, Burton Memorial Tower was Awarded for the 2023 Michigan Battle of the Buildings Competition in the University Category
This year we celebrated 10 years of the Michigan Energy Summit and 10 years of amazing projects and energy efficiency initiatives! Over the past 10 years, we have had a total of 149 winners from 75 different organizations, representing 264 Michigan cities. Since the program's inception in 2014, our competitors have redirected over $100 million of utility costs back to their bottom line and avoided almost 550,000 metric tons of CO2e. Over 272 million square feet of Michigan commercial real estate competed against each other in 2023 in this biggest loser-styled energy competition. The 2023 Michigan Battle of the Buildings competitors saved $7.4 million in energy costs and avoided 47,178 metric tons of CO2e which is equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 55,514 acres of US forests in one year! This year we had 11 industry-specific category winners. We are so excited to announce The University of Michigan as the 2023 Michigan Battle of the Buildings winner in the University Category!
The University of Michigan is no stranger to being a winner in the Michigan Battle of the Buildings competition. This award marks their 13th in 10 years! They have been awarded for many different energy efficiency projects but this year, they worked on steam traps in the Burton Memorial Tower to achieve a 36.94% reduction in overall energy usage. If you have ever been to the University of Michigan’s campus, you will have likely walked by this landmark on central campus. It houses the Baird Carillon, classrooms, and faculty offices for some members of the Department of Musicology. You can hear the bells at noon every weekday signifying that classes are in session, followed by a visitor Q&A with the carillonist from 12:30–12:45 pm.
In addition to the beautiful bells, the Tower houses classrooms, heated by steam throughout the building. In April of 2023, the facilities team got to work fixing the failed steam traps. All steam traps on campus are tested annually to check for blow-through, leaks, or plugged traps. Their tester found 15 failed steam traps, which were flagged for repair. The project cost was approximately $6,000 in testing and repairs. Utility rebates totaled $1,300 and they estimated the failed traps would waste over $9,000 annually if failed for the entire year.
The facilities team has enjoyed working with SS Combustion and Steam for 10 years on testing the steam traps. The maintenance staff performs the repairs every year. Dozens of failed steam traps are identified each year, and their replacements are timely and well-done.
Connor Flynn, CEM, Regional Energy Manager stated that “The University of Michigan has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity (Scope 2) to net zero by 2025, and to eliminate campus emissions (Scope 1) by 2040. We repair and replace steam traps in dozens of buildings every year, and we are constantly performing energy reduction projects across campus, from lighting upgrades to updated controls, in order to meet our Carbon Neutrality goals.”
We were excited to celebrate the University of Michigan’s accomplishments in energy efficiency at our annual Michigan Energy Summit on May 8, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were awarded in the University category!