In its first ever National Building Competition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency challenged teams from across the nation to cut wasteful energy use in buildings in which they live and work. Residential and commercial buildings together consume 40 percent of U.S. energy and the Obama Administration is eager to show how that load can be reduced.
在首届全国建筑竞赛上，美国环保署要求来自全国各地的参赛小组最大幅度地降低人们工作和生活于其中的建筑的能源浪费。居住和商用建筑消耗能源占全美能耗总量的大约百分之40。
In recent remarks at Pennyslvania State University, President Barack Obama promoted a plant that could help commercial buildings achieve greater energy efficiency.
建筑物消耗大量能源。这就是为什么奥巴马总统2月初前往宾夕法尼亚大学，推动一个可能帮助商用建筑提高能效的计划。
"Making our buildings more energy-efficient is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to save money, combat pollution and create jobs right here in the United States of America," he said.
他说：“提高建筑的能源利用率，是节省资金、控制污染、在美国创造就业的最快、最简单和最省钱的途径。我们要做的就是这个。”
Obama toured Penn State research labs where scientists are working on new technologies designed to cut energy waste in commercial buildings. Stores like the Sears department store in Glen Burnie, Maryland, which took second prize in the contest, are already using some of those technologies.
奥巴马总统参观了大学实验室。那里的科学家正在研究一些新技术来减少商业建筑的能源浪费，其中包括艾德·莫恩兹在马里兰州格伦博尼经营的西尔斯连锁百货店。
The Sears store sells everything from appliances and automotive supplies to clothes and consumer electronics. As manager, Ed Maunz walks the floors all day long, not just to check on staff, but to see how building systems are working. "The building is running 24 hours a day. And, certainly a building this size can consume a lot of energy if there are not efficiencies to keep it in check"
西尔斯出售从家用电器、汽车配件，到衣服和电子产品等各种商品。莫恩兹说：“这座建筑的电力系统一天24小时工作，人不在时也照样运转。这么大一个建筑物，要是不控制能源使用效率，会消耗大量的能源。”
Maunz calculates that 80 American homes could fit comfortably inside his store. And as in any private home, lighting, heating and cooling are the big energy users. He says air conditioning is very demanding, especially during the region’s intense summer heat and humidity.
莫恩兹说，像普通住家一样，西尔斯商店的能源使用大头是空调。空调非常费电，尤其是在马里兰州，夏天闷热潮湿。
"This building has 24 rooftop units. There can be times when they are overworking, under working and certainly they can drain the energy consumption if not working properly."
15,000 light bulbs switched out
As part of the store’s bid to cut its energy use, every one of those rooftop AC units was checked and repaired. Every light bulb - all 15,000 of them - was replaced with a more efficient one. And motion sensors were installed to shut lights off in offices and storerooms when no one is around.
莫恩兹这所商店为了减少能耗，定期检修每一个空调系统。商店所有15,000个灯都换成了节能灯，还装了活动感应器，没有人的时候自动关闭办公室和仓库的电灯。电梯也是按时启动，以节省电力。
Maunz says even escalators were put on a schedule to save power. "We are disciplined in that we don’t need the escalator on until the customer gets here and that’s approximately five minutes before the customer gets here and we turn it off five or ten minutes after the customer leaves."
Taken together, these changes helped the Sears store reduce its building energy consumption by neary one-third and cut electric bills by $46,000. Maunz says Sears’ employees like 23-year-old electronics salesman Jonathan Boushell were essential to the success of the plan.
这些措施综合起来将西尔斯商店能耗降低了将近三分之一，节省电费4万6千美元。莫恩兹表示，西尔斯雇员对节能计划的成功至关重要。比如，23岁的乔纳森·布什尔负责平板电视和电子游戏系统的销售。为了节能，他不得不改变一些惯常的做法。
Boushell works among banks of plasma TV sets and video-game systems. He figures they consume more energy than any department in the store and says he had to alter some routines during the year-long contest to control energy use.
"We made sure that all the TVs would be off by a certain time. We were just mindful of that and just to all around to conserve where we could, where it helped."
布什尔说：“我们非常注意，让所有的电视机在一定的时间关闭。晚上离开以前，关掉所有电器。”
What the Sears employees did can easily be replicated elsewhere, at little or no net cost, according to Jennifer Amann, the director of the Buildings Program for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
美国能源效率经济协会楼房建筑项目的詹妮佛·安曼认为，西尔斯雇员能做的，别的地方也可以做，而且费钱不多，甚至不费钱。
"In the current economic climate many companies are a little reluctant to make those large capital investments. So looking at your operations and maintenance is a great opportunity for tweaking the system, maybe changing out some of the components in the system that can really lead to energy savings without a huge financial investment."
她说：“因此，检查改进运营和维修是调整用电系统的一个好机会，或许更换用电系统中的某些部件会节省能源，同时又不需要大笔投资。”
Building energy diet
Office buildings can also achieve impressive energy savings. The tenants of a 12-story complex in Arlington, Virginia, managed to cut the building’s energy consumption by 28 percent as part of the EPA competition.
办公楼也能大幅度节省能源。维吉尼亚州阿灵顿一座12层办公楼的租户参加环保署的节能竞赛，把大楼的能源消耗降低了百分之28。
They did it with more efficient office lighting, an upgrade in heating and cooling systems and on-going computerized monitoring that allows building engineer Stan Hunt to know how efficiently energy is being used. "You can monitor all of your temperatures of your areas, as well as all the mechanical systems that support the areas. If somebody calls to say they are cold or they are hot you go in and look at the unit and see that servicing that area and make adjustments if necessary."
他们使用节能灯，更新空调系统，使用电脑监测，随时掌握能源使用效率。
Those measures helped shave $250,000 dollars from the building’s annual energy bills. Mike Williams, regional vice president for Glenborough, the real estate company that owns and leases the building, says updated building systems can only go so far. "The technology that we implemented was one thing, but a significant part of it was just changing the attitudes of people and how they viewed energy."
采取这些措施之后，这幢办公楼一年的电费节省了25万美元。办公楼的房东迈克·威廉姆说，节能的成功也依赖于租户的参与，“我们采用的技术是一面，但一个主要方面是改变人们的态度，改变他们对待能源的态度。”
The Arlington, Virginia office tower is used by government and commercial tenants, a supermarket and three levels of underground parking. The Aluminum Association is one of the companies leasing space in the tower.
阿灵顿这座办公楼的租户是政府和商业机构，以及一家超市和三层地下停车场。铝业协会是租户之一。
Its president Steve Larkin says the EPA’s energy challenge mirrored the way his employees already work and use energy at the office. "That means: turning off lights. That means turning off computers when we’re finished. That means closing the blinds to keep the sun out or opening the blinds on a cold day when we need the sun in."
协会主席史蒂夫·拉金说，环保署的节能竞赛跟他的雇员的节能做法一致，“这就是随手关灯，下班后关闭电脑，太阳直射时放下窗帘，天冷时拉起窗帘让阳光照进来。”
Low-cost solutions
Whether it’s an office building or a department store, a school or church, the EPA energy challenge showed that there’s always room for improvement, says Jennifer Amann with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. "It really shows that there are always opportunities, lots of un-mined potential in our buildings. It’s not a project that you do once and you forget about. It is something that you do over time and you maintain it as part of your strategy."
美国能源效率经济协会的安曼说，环保署的节能竞赛显示，无论是办公楼还是商店，无论是学校还是教堂，都大有节能的余地。他说：“竞赛显示，总是有很多的机会节省能源。这不是一次性的工程，可以一劳永逸，而是需要反复做，让它称为你节能战略的一部分。”
A building strategy, Amann adds, that makes sense both for the pocket book and the planet.
安曼指出，一所楼房的节能战略既能省钱，也保护环境。 |