The McCarthy Arts Center, home of Saint Michael's College theater productions, student and professional concerts, the Saint Michael’s Playhouse, hundreds of lectures, meetings, concerts, rehearsals, courses, and more, has been turned into an energy efficient building worthy of scrutiny by the Vermont’s heating and cooling engineering professionals.
The facility, closed this fall to allow for a thorough-going upgrade of the heating and cooling systems, was re-opened this month. The work provided such an improvement that it became the showpiece for the Dec. 2 meeting of the Vermont chapter of the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASJRAE) who toured back stage, downstairs, upstairs, and the entire building to see the changes that have enabled major improvements to the energy efficiency of the facility.
The upgrade to the building’s mechanical systems cost $750,000, but the savings generated by the changes are estimated to yield 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.
Mr. 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.
Tim Perrin of Efficiency Vermont and Steve Poole of Vermont Heating and Ventilating Company addressed the ASHRAE engineers on their visit to 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, Perrin said. This is coupled with incentives from Efficiency Vermont, quoted by Mr. Perrin at $30,000, and from Vermont Gas at $1,500, annually.
“Over its lifetime, this new equipment will reduce the Saint Michael’s College carbon footprint by 5,660 tons of carbon dioxide,” Tim Perrin said. He estimated this to be the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 61 passenger vehicles, or the equivalent of CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 42 homes for one year. He added, “The occupants of the McCarthy Arts Center will also experience more comfortable and even temperatures during performances”
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael’s College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu. Saint Michael’s provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead a successful, purposeful life that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael’s is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s Best 371 Colleges. It is one of 270 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael’s has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael’s students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Saint Michael’s is located just outside Burlington, Vermont, one of America’s top college towns.
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