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Handbook for Energy Conservation in Correctional Facilities

NCJ Number
79706
Date Published
1981
Length
232 pages
Annotation
The handbook describes how to calculate energy use and cost trends and how to identify energy conservation potential in correctional facilities. Its two sections present an energy conservation program guide in both a nontechnical and technical context useful for managers and facility engineers.
Abstract
Managers must include energy conservation in their long-range and annual budget plans and must understand the importance of communication, motivation, publicity, planning, and periodic followup surveys to ensure a successful energy conservation program. A program starts with an engineering survey to identify retrofit projects and to provide approximate measures of their relative merits for budgetary planning. The survey would consist of collecting energy-use data, categorizing buildings, identifying retrofit options, and evaluating and ranking retrofit projects. Basic facts about the building, its site, and its function would be assembled to determine the facility's energy use and thus allow development of energy conservation opportunities (ECO's). A simple payback period is then easily calculated for each ECO. The most economically feasible ECO's and those which can yield the quickest and greatest results involve architectural, ventilating, cooling, lighting, heating, and water heating systems. Daily conservation practices in the areas of housing, offices, food service, and public use facilities can also result in significant savings. Alternative energy systems that might be considered are solar thermal, biomass, wind power, hydropower, photovoltaics, and cogeneration. This handbook gives a detailed account of management's role in the program, provides worksheets for the facility survey, and outlines the method for calculating simple payback periods. In addition, it presents examples of common retrofit options that result in a 5-year payback, identifies the major energy conservation options to look for, and explains how to calculate the benefits of modifications to the major energy systems (e.g., insulation, equipment replacement, installation of energy-saving features to existing equipment) for various locations and climate. Bibliographies accompany each section, and an index is included. (Author summary modified)