Description:

Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and Tauber School was the first synagogue in the city of Aventura. It is a nonprofit religious institution consisting of 2 buildings that were built in 1990, totaling 70,983 square feet. The client secured Partner Energy’s services as part of a plan to not only make the properties more energy efficient, but to eventually turn them into one of the first buildings in Aventura to be net zero carbon. As part of the education for the students in attendance, the client intends this project to be a lesson on the fight against global warming, showing the students how this is done through real-world application.

Partner Energy performed a LEVEL I Energy Audit for the properties, collecting information on the building operations, previous building system upgrades, equipment nameplate information, and utility data. As part of the scope, Partner Energy established the annual energy use baseline using ENERGY STAR® Portfolios Manager, and identified opportunities for energy conservation measures (ECMs) based on payback periods and cost. The ECMs were for various systems, including HVAC, Control, Lighting, Plumbing, Electrical, and Building Envelope. The benchmarking score based on the provided electric utility data was found to be 27 out of range from 0 to 100, while scores of 75 are considered energy efficient, showing there is significant room for improvement.

Partner Energy recommended various measures to get the properties toward a minimum ENERGY STAR® Score of 75, taking into account of the location of the properties, which are in warm and humid areas.

Examples of the ECMs include:

  • Exterior LED Lighting – replacing existing metal halide lamps with LED fixtures, which will provide significant lighting energy savings
  • Interior LED Lighting – replacing existing non-LED fixtures (fluorescent, metal halide, incandescent technology) with LED fixtures.
  • Replace single pane windows with dual pane low-E windows.
  • Replace old RTUs that have a low R-22 refrigerant with new high efficiency RTUS, which have 4-410a refrigerant.
  • Install building automation system with wireless thermostats and optimize controls, which will provide improved space temperature controls, depending on occupancy.
  • Install a white color roof instead of additional roof insulation, which has comparatively higher energy savings and better simple payback.

The total value of the savings from all the ECMs is $120,576 per year. The measures have an overall simple payback time of 17 years, and in total would yield an 96.5% reduction in site energy. The client will be implementing the immediate payback measures right away, and plans to phase in the other measures within the next 3 to 5 years.