Team Incirlik seeing results of energy conservation efforts

  • Published
  • By Lori Burling Alves
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Team Incirlik is seeing results from its energy conservation campaign launched earlier this year. In the past two months alone, the base saved more than $25,000 by reducing the amount of light resources and turning off the air conditioning in industrial buildings. 

"The months of April and May are real success stories," said Capt. Greg Hammond, 39th Civil Engineer Squadron Quality Assurance flight commander. "We were able to save thousands of dollars." 

The "Better Stewards of Energy, While Saving Us Money" campaign was launched in an effort to save energy while also saving money for Incirlik Air Base. In February, wing leadership asked that all industrial buildings reduce light resources by 50 percent and to go as long as reasonable without air conditioning. Both goals were answered by energy conservers, however, because of extreme weather temperatures, air conditioning units were turned on in May. 

"We had a week-to-10 days of really hot temperatures -- over 100 degrees -- in May," said Tom Carneal, 39th CES deputy director of civil engineering, who also oversees payment of the utility bills at Incirlik. "We didn't have a choice, it was just too warm in the buildings." 

But the energy team still saw positive results. Although air conditioning units started up on May 15, Incirlik saw a decrease in kilowatt usage in industrial buildings. In April 2007, conservers reduced the amount of kilowatts used by seven percent from the same period in 2006. 

In May, the base reduced usage by three percent. 

"Reduced energy usage saved Incirlik approximately $25,813 in two months," said Mr. Carneal. 

"It was a tremendous effort," he said. "We even saw a decrease in energy usage in base housing as well." 

While no energy conservation goals were stipulated for base housing units, the energy team urged military families to be aware of their energy usage and conserve where they could, such as reducing light resources and using windows rather than air conditioning.

Team Incirlik had hoped to save nearly $300,000 by Sept. 1 with efforts from the campaign. Because the air conditioning units were turned on earlier than planned, the energy team reevaluated the goals for 2007. 

"We're hoping to save $150,000 by September," said Mr. Carneal. "That's still a big improvement over last year." 

Captain Hammond said the energy efforts will continue, plus additional measures will be taken. All facility managers -- existing and new -- are now required to survey their buildings to find ways of conserving energy. 

"At the end of this year we'll have 38 industrial buildings newly wired so we can monitor where and when the energy is being used and saved," he said. 

"That's part of the changes that will occur over the next couple of years within the housing areas," said Mr. Carneal. "With the new renovations starting in September, we'll eventually be able to monitor power usage in every house." 

Two other energy conservation programs Incirlik is heading will eventually save thousands of dollars. The team has received grant money to create an irrigation system and a water softening system, according to John Starnes, 39th CES Maintenance Engineering and Planning chief. The irrigation system will allow Incirlik to reuse the clean water filtered from the sewage system for the golf course. That water is currently removed to Adana. 

"It costs us $35,000 to remove that water," said Mr. Starnes. "We can reduce that amount considerably by reusing it. The more water we retain on base, the lower that amount gets." 

The second project is to create a water softening system to reduce the hardness of the base' s well water. Softening the water will lengthen the life expectancy of hot water tanks and also decrease the amount of energy being used to produce hot water. 

"Some of the hot water tanks on base run nearly 20 hours a day to create hot water because the calcium buildup is so high," explained Mr. Starnes. "A brand new hot water tank only runs about two hours a day to create hot water." 

"We're making a lot of progress in conserving energy here. We're more aware of our energy usage, but we still have a long way to go," said Mr. Carneal. "People are the key. The more aware they are, the more energy we'll save."