UNSW will pursue maximum efficiency in the management of water, by conserving water use and disposal, monitoring and reporting, and promoting staff and student awareness of water issues on campus.

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The University of New South Wales has won an Energy Smart Green Globe Award for the installation of co-generation to power and heat the university swimming pool. The award recognises UNSW as a key player in the renewable energy industry.

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A carbon dioxide (CO2) demonstration and competition was held at Kensington campus to educate the University community about the significance of CO2 emissions resulting from UNSW’s electricity consumption. The event featured two piles of 7,000 milk cartons...

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Standby power for electrical equipment - sometimes called leaking electricity or ‘Phantom loads’ - is the electricity consumed by appliances when they are switched off or not performing their primary function. Standby power consumption is an increasing fraction of the world’s energy use.

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A lot of the work we're focusing on now is preparing the foundation for the new Building and Energy Control Centre, based on the BACnet protocol. Contracted system integrators, software developers and installation technicians are all involved in this process. When it's complete, we'll be able to centrally gather detailed information about the performance of air-conditioning (chillers, boilers and fans etc.), internal and external lighting, electricity, natural gas and water (potable and bore) consumption, fire services, lifts and the swimming pool cogeneration system. That information will be displayed on standard computer screens, in the form of trend graphs, time schedules and detailed flow diagrams showing temperatures, flow rates and pressures etc.

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Building Automation and Control Network (BACnet) is a truly open protocol developed by the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for anyone to use without any licensing costs. This means that devices can be designed to operate using BACnet communication protocol as well as utilising BACnet protocol to communicate between systems. BACnet is the internationally accepted new protocol for building automation and control over a communications network.

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Metering for electricity, gas and/or water consumption is required for all new and refurbished buildings, major plant items, specified services and user groups. The Energy Manager or Manager, Engineering Services must be consulted regarding the location, type, connection and commissioning arrangements for metering in any of the above situations. Written approval is required from the Energy Manager for installations that need not be provided with metering of utilities.

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Most of UNSW's electricity supply comes from power stations around the state, and is ultimately brought to us through Energy Australia's high voltage network. Cogeneration involves the joint production (locally) of two forms of energy from the same source. In our case, the two forms are hot water and electricity from a natural gas supply.

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