Project Description
U.S. Cellular Center
Asheville, NC
Located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this event center first opened in 1974, and has hosted a variety of concerts, sporting events, trade and consumer shows, banquets, and other events. The facility has four major areas of service including an exhibition hall, a 7,200 seat arena, a 500 seat banquet hall, and a 2,431 seat auditorium.
GEI was selected by the city of Asheville to perform an ASHRAE level 2 audit on the facility to aid the city with producing a long-term sustainability plan. The project features include:
▪ Construction of an investment grade energy model of the entire facility.
▪ The model was capable of accurately predicting the proposed sustainability practices, lighting retrofits, and controls measures.
▪ The identified energy savings measures included improved controls, airside economizers, lighting retrofits, rainwater harvesting, solar PV, and HVAC upgrades.
▪ A detailed utility analysis was completed and identified the energy impact of all major events in the facility.
▪ The project provided the City of Asheville a map for the future sustainability of the facility.
▪ $125,400 annual energy savings was identified.
▪ 230,000 square feet.
One of the many challenges in modeling this facility was the lack of a consistent operating schedule, so that cooling and heating loads were mostly a function of scheduled events in various parts of the facility. As a result, custom event schedule solutions were created for the model.