A goal of the NH State Energy Management Office (SEM) is to help state agencies and their employees identify strategies to conserve and use energy more efficiently, saving environmental resources and taxpayer dollars. Once identified, the SEM office may help fund improvements to address the issues. Funded projects have ranged from switching out outdated lighting systems to more efficient LED technology to installing solar panels on state building roofs. We recently caught up with Kendall Perkins, Jr., Air Monitoring Program Manager and Jim Poisson, Energy, Utility & Quality Assurance Project Leader for the Air Monitoring Program at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) to talk about their energy efficiency efforts. Their program has benefitted from SEM funding through several projects over recent years.
“The Energy Management Office is our go to program as far as funding is concerned,” said Jim Poisson. “When we apply for funding from the Energy Management Office, or sometimes the legislature, we go for projects with the most long-term payout,” said Poisson. “At first, we replaced the security lights at all of the stations to energy saving bulbs. Then we replace the remaining bulbs with more efficient ones at facilities as they wear out.”
“We currently have twelve air monitoring stations across the state that need precise climate control because of the sensitive measuring instruments that are used,” said Poisson. “We spend a lot on heating and cooling the stations, so we need to be as efficient as possible; and, take advantage of funding opportunities when we can. We always make good use of the funds,” he concluded. Continue reading “State’s Air Monitoring Brilliantly Lit and Energy Efficient”