The Pfizer Groton campus has been identified as one of the top consumers of energy in the entire global portfolio of Pfizer Facilities. This makes building 274 an important target in order for Pfizer to reach its sustainability goals. Pfizer will receive a comprehensive report that analyzes energy consumption, recommends ways to reduce it, estimates implementation costs, and proposes strategies for implementation. We first looked into what the primary consumers of energy were in the building and identified HVAC equipment and electrical equipment as being the largest consumers of energy, therefore this was the starting point in our analysis. After touring the building there were several potential issues that were identified. When choosing what to focus on, three parameters were used: realistic changes that can be made, low cost implementation, and low displacement of workers during the rollout process. One recommendation is the partial ductwork insulation on the roof that has been exposed to ambient air conditions which drastically increases the energy needed by the HVAC equipment to keep up. Ductwork layout also was identified as an opportunity as there are better, more efficient layouts that could be used, changing the layout is however unrealistic when factoring cost and ROI. Windows were also recognized as being old and outdated which provides another avenue of exploration to reduce energy loss. A move to window film could result in a 75% reduction in the cost of heat loss through windows. Also glycol, which is coolant found in hydronic heating systems, could be changed to ethylene glycol, with more desirable thermal properties creating a cost savings of roughly 20% when compared to the glycol currently being used. These recommendations as a whole are realistic, create a reasonable ROI and can be done with low amounts of staff relocation during the duration of these fixes.

Our team collaborated with Electrical and Computer Engineering 15 on this project.