Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Improvements to Portable Classrooms in Florida.

Findings are presented from a 2-year experiment exploring ways to reduce energy costs and improve the learning environment in Florida's 25,000 portable classrooms. Improvements were made in two highly instrumented portable classrooms in the following areas: installation of a T8 lighting system with electronic ballasts; a high efficiency heat pump with enthalpy recovery ventilation (ERV); a metal white reflective roof system; and an occupancy based control system for lighting and air conditioning. Findings reveal the lighting system and occupancy control reduced lighting energy use by an average of 53 percent from one year to the next. The ERV provided five times the ventilation air found in the initial configuration, while still controlling indoor humidity to an acceptable level; this significantly cut internal CO2 levels with a potential beneficial impact on indoor air quality. Total reduction in space conditioning energy needs was 39 percent or about 6.9 kWh/day. The project demonstrates the feasibility of altering new portable classrooms in Florida so that they use 40 percent less electricity. Energy savings greater than 30 percent were demonstrated for existing portable classrooms through automated controls and simple changes to the lighting system. (Contains 21 references.) (GR)