Kearney Public Schools | Kearney, Nebraska

Challenge

In alignment with its mission and commitment to sustainability, Kearney Public Schools sought to create the best learning environment possible with buildings that were clean, comfortable, and energy efficient. “We put an energy policy into effect about a year ago,” said Trent Bosard, facilities director, Kearney Public Schools. “In order to meet our target goals, we wanted to be more proactive in finding ways to reduce our energy consumption.”

Solution

Kearney Public Schools turned its focus to the multiple controls systems that were put in place over the years as the district grew. To gain operational consistency, the district made the decision to migrate all of its building controls to a Trane® Tracer® Ensemble™ building management system, and add Trane Intelligent Services to expand its energy saving and sustainability efforts.

Optimizing building operations

The Tracer Ensemble building management system provides Kearney Public Schools with an enterprise-wide view of fourteen school buildings throughout the district. Facilities managers use Ensemble to control HVAC systems, manage daily operations, troubleshoot issues and monitor energy use from a single location, helping to increase productivity and optimize the use of building maintenance staff.

The easy-to-use interface, fully-customizable navigation, and enhanced touch screen of the Ensemble makes it simple to address comfort issues, change schedules, adjust setpoints and manage alarms. The web-based Ensemble also offers facilities managers the ability to access systems on-site or remotely using their tablet or phone.

Utilizing energy management tools

Trane Intelligent Services provides Kearney Public Schools with energy management systems and services that facilitate monitoring, analysis, alerts, reporting, tracking and real time performance data to improve system and energy efficiency. Working with Trane, the Kearney Public Schools’ facilities team uses Intelligent Services to gain greater visibility to energy use, and control over building systems, to improve efficiency and comfort.