Rockland Public Library: Part 1

Energy Assessment and Efficiency Recommendations

Although Evergreen focuses primarily on residential energy efficiency, we can’t resist municipal projects in our own backyard.  So when the trustees of the Rockland Public Library approached us with concerns about high energy bills, uneven temperatures, and ice damming, we listened.

The Library’s heating costs were was nearly $30,000 every year, and a comprehensive energy audit showed why.  The building envelope was extremely leaky, with gaps in the attic insulation and along the rim joist, and the foundation walls completely uninsulated.  In this basement picture, you can see where the pink fiberboard has been cut to make room for pipes – and unintended air flow.

To make matters worse, the building envelope essentially stopped at the ceiling, leaving the heating ducts to run through uninsulated attic space. Though the ducts were mostly insulated, they were still exposed to the summer heat and winter cold.

Infrared images revealed inadequate insulation in the Library’s cathedral ceilings, which explains the frost patterns you can see on the roof and the ice dams that develop every winter.

We recommended insulating the roof slopes, which would expand the building envelope so it enclosed the heating ducts; insulating the walls of the older section of the library; and sealing the boundary between the foundation walls and the library structure above.  These improvements should reduce the library’s energy costs by 35% and pay for themselves in seven years. Rockland put out an RFP, and selected Evergreen to retrofit the building.

Next up: Retrofiting the Rockland Public Library