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Melrose Saves Energy with Green Community Grants

Posted on: April 22, 2020 - 2:01pm
Energy-efficient rooftop unit being lifted to the roof of City Hall

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we are running a series of posts about a number of different projects, supervised by Sustainability Manager Martha Grover, that are making Melrose greener.

Several building energy efficiency projects are underway across Melrose with funding from a recent Green Community Competitive Grant Award of $219,028 from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. This is the fifth Green Community grant Melrose has been awarded since 2010 for a total of $1,086,777.

Current facility energy projects include:

  • Replacing the 65% efficient boiler at the Beebe Elementary School with a 95.8 % high-efficiency boiler;
  • Installing insulation, air sealing, and other infiltration reductions at the Beebe and Ripley Elementary Schools;
  • Installing Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) on two rooftop heating and ventilation units over the middle school gym;
  • Replacing the 20-year old rooftop unit serving the City Council Chamber with a high-efficiency RTU at City Hall; and
  • Retrofitting all of the lighting at Roosevelt Elementary School with LEDs.

These energy conservation measures, like the dozens of efficiency projects completed since 2010, result in energy and utility savings for every city department. Over the years, the city has converted every building from oil to gas heat, upgraded the lighting fixtures in every municipal building and every streetlight in the community, installed high-efficiency HVAC systems in many facilities, insulated roofs and sealed windows and doors, and installed state-of-the-art building control systems that allow the facility manager to set temperatures and address problems remotely.

The key to the success of these initiatives over time is the robust preventive maintenance program put in place when the Department of Public Works took over management of most city and school buildings a few years ago. The Building Systems Supervisor Mark Thompson ensures that the systems function as installed and as efficiently as possible through on-going retro-commissioning. As a result, the Energy Use Index for our most energy intensive buildings, including the high school, middle school, Roosevelt and Lincoln Schools are well below average. The EUI is a standard measure of building efficiency.