Project

The Chisago Lakes Area Library

Our FLL team chose to focus our energy audit on the Chisago Lakes Area Library. Through the course of our energy audit, we isolated one big issue with the library: the high heating costs. We discovered this fact by examining the energy bills for the library and confirmed it by talking to the Chisago Township Treasurer, who had been very surprised when the energy bills first came in. We decided on three solutions to help reduce heating and other energy costs: fans, solar air collectors, and, in the future, a cold fusion generator. We presented our research to the library board, in hope that they would be interested in installing one or more of the solutions. Because of the low upfront cost and quick payback period, the library board decided to pursue the fan solution. We hope that the board will decide to implement these fans soon.

Fans

The main part of the Chisago Library has a very high, slanted ceiling. Near the roof, there are many windows with a lower R value than the insulated walls. We hypothesized that the warm air rises up to the ceiling and goes out the lower R value windows. We suggested installing Airius® Thermal Equalizer fans to circulate warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer, reducing heating and cooling costs. This fan is a new product that is designed to equalize temperatures in a room. Six of these fans would be needed to cover the large cubic-footage in the main area of the library. The six fans would cost $3780 total, including shipping and installation costs, and would have a 2-year payback period, saving $1890 annually on heating costs. For more information on these fans, click here.

Solar Air Collectors

To reduce the workload of the boiler, we suggested installing a solar air collector. The solar air collector would preheat the air coming into the library’s air exchanger, cutting the amount of heat the boiler must create by a substantial amount. We researched a type of solar air collector called the SolarWall®. The SolarWall® would be installed on part of the south-facing wall of the library. If 570 square feet (area of southern-facing wall of library) of solar wall panels were used, they would cost $5700, and pay themselves back in about 10 years, saving the library $570 per year. For more information on the SolarWall®, click here.

Cold Fusion

One way to generate electricity for the library is a developing technology called cold fusion. Cold fusion is the process of fusing the nuclei of the hydrogen isotope, deuterium at room temperatures. This fusing creates heat, which can be converted by thermoelectric converters into electricity. Our team contacted a cold fusion expert, Edmond Storms (PhD in radiochemistry). He said cold fusion would be cheaper than any other current power source. Cold fusion is still in the experimental stages. However, Edmond Storms said that cold fusion could be a very real energy producer as soon as 2020. If this does happen then it will play a very large and very real part in the energy puzzle.