Millersville University’s Net Zero Energy Building Creates Positive Energy Fund

Millersville University of Pennsylvania recently constructed a $7.5 million, 14,600 square-foot campus building that is currently undergoing review for Net-Zero Energy certification. The Lombardo Center houses the Admissions, Marketing, and Residence staff, and is also a Welcome Center with an educational focus.

A super energy-efficient building, its highly insulated exterior envelope, thermally broken curtain wall, LED lighting, geothermal well field, radiant floor heating and zoned HVAC all contribute to making the building 60 percent more efficient than other campus buildings (EUI: 25 kBtu/sf/year). The energy it does require is supplied by a roof-top solar array incorporating 528 solar photovoltaic panels and a 20-panel dual axis tracker system.

The Lombardo Welcome Center includes 350 metering points that allow the University to track energy consumption and intensity by energy end use and location. Energy dashboards allow visitors to monitor, in real-time and over time, energy production and consumption. In its first year the Lombardo Welcome Center made 204,391 kWh of electricity and used 115,853 kWh, meaning that it generated 75% more energy than it used—effectively making it a positive energy building.

In the spring of 2019, Millersville University used utility rebate dollars and cost savings associated with the Lombardo Welcome Center’s energy efficient performance to establish a Positive Energy Fund, which provides micro-grants to faculty, staff and students interested in implementing community projects that advance sustainability locally using the global goals framework.

Day
Monday Poster Session
Authors
Kathleen Schreiber
Chris Steuer
Related Conference Themes
Built Environment
Electricity Generation
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