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Project Updates for collection: Living Lab Facilities / Programs

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  3. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, this past week was comfortably slow. Sold out of bikes.

     

    I reached out to Working Bikes about them coming down to pick up bikes but haven’t heard back yet. Will follow up this week.

     

    I’ll also be picking up bikes from UIPD and processing them. I got a report that the pump at Altgeld/Union is on the fritz. I’ll check that out this week and see if I can get it operational without ordering any new parts. Fingers crossed.

     

    Tuesday morning I’ll be meeting with someone from the Illini Gadget Garage. They do a very similar thing to the Bike Center, except with electronics/small appliances: teaching people how to repair them.  

     

    Thursday is LTN 2018. We’ve got a record number of lights to install this year!

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 116
    Sales: $1,086

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $97.50
    Memberships: 17 for $510
    Tires/tubes: 23 for $153

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  5. SSC approves micro grant - SSLC guest lecture series

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC)

    SSC has voted to approve the $500 micro grant proposal for a guest lecture series with the contingency that this grant is considered seed funding and not ongoing financial support. In accordance with our fee mandates, the funding cannot go towards, food, travel, or lodging. Thus, this grant supports the honorarium and/or venue fees. 

    Attached Files: 

  6. Water005 Rainworks Design Lot F4 recommendation - Successful

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Water and Stormwater Recommendations Summary
    EPA RainWorks Challenge

    Director of Parking at the University of Illinois, Marty Paulins, responded over email to Ximing Cai (iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability) in support of the recommendation:

    "Parking supports the recommendation to do a feasibility study for Lot F4, incorporating the green infrastructure from the conceptualization completed by the students in the award winning rainworks challenge."

    For future updates on this project, please visit EPA RainWorks Challenge.

    See the iWG Assessment of Water005 Rainworks Design Lot F4 here.

    See the SWATeam Recommendation Water005 Rainworks Design Lot F4 here.

  8. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, this past week calmed down a bit. We were still busy but manageably so instead of overwhelmed. Friday’s heavy and constant rain kept visitor number low for that day. Last week I interviewed and will be hiring a new student worker. I reached out to Working Bikes about them taking a lot of our abandoned bikes as in years past but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

     

    I taught a Bike Maintenance 101 class last Monday. It went well, even if there was  low turnout. I picked up 12 bikes or so from UIPD. They’ve got another 10 – 12 for us and I’ll coordinate with them this week on that. I’ll also be finishing up some bikes so we have a few for sale, stripping some of the junkers that we got from UIPD and working on inventory as we look towards fall.

     

    The numbers:

     

    Sales: $1,586.00

    Memberships: 11 for $330
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $695
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $104.50

    Tires/tubes: 14 for $112

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  9. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, busy, busy week, as it always is this time of year. A few members completed their B-a-Bs, sold more memberships due to the suspension of the First Visit Free policy. Very few instances of people scoffing at the price/cost of entry, as most understood that a membership is a darn good deal. At its worst we had 10 people waiting for stand time.  


    One of the student workers, Tovah, gave her 2 weeks’ notice last week, as her class schedule is too demanding for her to also work here. I’ll be interviewing/hiring a replacement ASAP.

     

    Todd helped out with picking up scrap over the weekend and Barry got the sign-in computer up and running (though it could die at any moment). Lucas and Logan (former staffers both) visited the shop on Friday and ended up volunteering, which was super awesome of them. Thanks to all four gentlemen for their help!

     

    This week I’ve got the Bike Maintenance 101 class tonight at the ARC. I’ll be building bikes (2 for sale right now), coordinating with UIPD to pick up some donated bikes they have for us, and reaching out to Working Bikes and the Parking Dept. about our annual Bike Warehouse Clean Out.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 83 (actual number was much higher; sign-in computer was down)

    Sales: $1,891.50

    Memberships: 21 for $630
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $520
    Bikes (B-a-B): 3 for $246.50
    Tire/tubes: 27 for $136

     

    Thanks!

    - Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  10. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, busy times have arrived! We’ve mostly sold out of bikes (4 left), and been registering bikes like crazy. With a dearth of for sale bikes, we’ve got an uptick of B-a-Bs, for better or worse. The tail end of last week I officially suspended the First Visit Free option for the Campus Bike Center. Just too busy to accommodate freebies. I’ll reinstate FVF when it calms down, usually in October. I’ll add that info to the website today.

    Last week featured a lot of stern talking-tos with members about the concept of not being allowed to work on your bike without a stand. There’s a lot of pushback on it and I’ll attempt this week to emphasis the safety aspect and maybe that’ll help.

     

    Over the weekend were two outreach events: Quad Day and Illini Frenzy. Both were well-attending and well-received! I handed out a lot of registration forms and TBP hours pages.

    This week I’ll be interviewing for a potential new hire, building bikes, attending the Bike Project monthly meeting, and stripping the junk bikes we got donated last week to keep the shop as clean as I can during the busy times.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 123

    Sales: $1,677.00

    Bikes (refurb): 6 for $960
    Memberships: 8 for $240
    Tires/tubes: 19 for $83

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  11. Join your neighbors getting solar PVs!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Urbana-Champaign

    Champaign and Piatt County home and business owners installing solar energy have triggered the second 1% discount in the Solar Urbana-Champaign program! The program makes it faster, easier, and more affordable to go solar by leveraging the power of volume purchasing, and a community-education campaign.

    https://mailchi.mp/urbanaillinois/announcement-solar-urbana-champaign-30...

  14. Capacity of distribution lines

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 2.0

    U19005: Electrical-Medium Voltage Power Distribution Study Updates - should start in mid-September - to evaluate capacity of power distribution line connected to proposed solar farm 2.0 site.

  15. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week was a whirlwind of cleaning and reorganizing. On Monday afternoon a large dumpster was dropped off and on Tuesday a bunch of new furniture and cabinets came. The old furniture and cabinets went into the dumpster and the new stuff has been put in its place. On Friday a new big metal work table was dropped off to replace the smaller, broken, and less effective one. Overall, the shop is still in progress but will look a lot better shortly. Unfortunately, on Friday and over the weekend, we got 4 more bike donations, which is counterproductive as far as a clean shop is concerned but they’re good bikes that we can get

    In moving some of the computer stuff to the new desk some cables got plugged in incorrectly and this caused a major headache for the IT dept and the Bike Project. A large thanks to Barry and the two guys from F&S IT who helped right the ship.  

     

    Despite the continued construction on Pennsylvania, we were jam-packed for an hour on Thursday. We still haven’t been so busy as to require the suspension of the Free Visit policy. I’ll gauge how busy it is today and go from there.

     

    Last week I ordered the lights for LTN 2018. They should be here Wednesday.

     

    This week I will finish up the dumpster-required work and spiffy up some more. We’re starting to sell bikes on the regular and thusly stock is starting to dwindle (this is good!)  so I’ll finish up a few more shop builds this week, too.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 65

    Sales: $1,056.25

    Memberships: 7 for $210
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $455
    Tire/tubes: 12 for $73

    Thanks!

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week seemed to pick up towards the end of the week. We had to herd people out of the shop at 5:30. Even with the street closure, people are managing to find us. I’ve taken the sandwich board sign off the trike and placed it next to the garage door facing east since most of our traffic is coming from that side nowadays. I’ll reconstruct the trike and start using it again once Pennsylvania is reopened.

     

    This week I’ll be bringing the student staff in during the mornings to help clean and purge since we’ll be getting a pan dumpster and some new furniture. The disruption won’t affect open hours, as most of the cleaning will be in the back end of the shop anyway. We’ve got a dumpster here until Friday, so the staff and I should be able to concentrate all the cleaning to the mornings and have things back to functional order in time for open hours.

     

    I think either this week or next I will be suspending First Visit Free. This past week it was already affecting usage/stand availability for members. I’ll put a bulletin on the Bike Project website alerting people to that fact when I institute it.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 79

    Sales: $468.00

    Memberships: 2 for $60.
    Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $56
    Tire/tubes: 10 for $50

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  17. Feasibility study to be done

    Associated Project(s): 
    Geothermal at WPP

    Due to the complexity of this project, F&S recommended conducting a feasibility study before installation.  It is estiamted to cost approximately $10K and take about one month to complete.

  18. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, had a strong and busy finish to the end of last week. I think the student population is making its way back in advance of the new academic year.

     

    Last week I ordered the light sets for Light The Night, although a snag has just been brought to my attention. I spoke to the customer service representative at Dero on Friday and beyond his giddy reaction to the squirrel problem, he told me that they have on-order a new all-metal pump head that will withstand all the abuse (and squirrels) that our campus can muster.

     

    This week is a TBP Members’ Meeting. I’ll also work on resolving the issue with the Light The Night order, scrap more bikes in advance of the Big Clean as well as begin rounding up some volunteers to help out for the event.

     

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 87

    Memberships: 5 for $150

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $330
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $105
    Tire/tubes: 6 for $29

     

    Sincerely,

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  19. EUI at Fruit Farm Admin Building

    Associated Project(s): 
    Geothermal at the Fruit Farm Admin Building
    Energy Conservation Efforts

    Please see the attached Excel file for some Energy Use Intensity (MMBTU/GSF) and (kBTU/GSF) calculations for the Fruit Farm Admin Building.  I have also attached an Energy Star Portfolio Manager Technical Reference which gives numbers for average U.S. Energy Use Intensity by Property Type.  These numbers are given in kBTU/GSF for comparison.

     

    The good news is that the numbers have been decreasing from 2011 through 2017.  Since 2018 is not over yet it would not be fair to count that number, but from 2011 through 2017 the energy use intensity appears to have decreased to about half of its starting value!  The numbers range from about 299 MMBTU/GSF to about 153 MMBTU/GSF (about 45 kBTU/GSF to about 23 kBTU/GSF). 

     

    If you look in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager document, the UIUC Fruit Farm is on par with a small retail office (at the higher EUI levels from 2011) to a warehouse or other unoccupied space (at the lower EUI levels from more recent data).  This may be an indication of the level of activity of the facility, or it may just reflect the fact that you are getting a lot of geothermal energy (three to four units of geothermal energy for every one unit of electricity).  If you look in the table you will see that a laboratory is listed as 78.8 kBTU/GSF, which is about 3.5 times the 2017 calculated value of 23 kBTU/GSF for the Fruit Farm.

     

    Please note that the numbers I am comparing the Fruit Farm to are the site energy numbers in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager document, which reflect the amount of energy you are using at the site (meter readings).  Source energy numbers are higher and include losses due to energy conversion and distribution from where the energy was originally generated (likely a coal or natural gas plant in Illinois).

    - Frank Holcomb

    Attached Files: 

  20. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was slow, for the most part. Felt like we got a lot of donations. Trained a new staffer, waiting on clearance to train one more. Still building and scrapping bikes on the regular. My checklist sheet for shop builds is working—for the most part. There are still detail things that the staff don’t really notice, a slack chain on a single-speed for example, or cable ends are too long. Overall, I think it’s helping but the details matter and very much can still result in an unsafe bicycle. I’ll look at revising it a bit this w eek.

    This will be Dennis’s last week here (I think, will check on this). He has been a great staffer and we’ll miss him!

     

    This week I will begin prep for our big clean out/purge at the beginning of August. I’ll poll the staff for availability and iron out the details for how many days we’ll be closed (best-case scenario: one day). We’ll begin August 6th. We’ll be pulling all the bikes out and moving furniture around to give a solid, deep clean, and toss out the junk that has accumulated. We haven’t ever done a big clean like this during my tenure here and it’s wholly overdue. While we might lose a day or two of open hours, the end result will be a better functioning and cleaner/easier to navigate space.

     

    This week I will also be getting in touch with Lexco about ordering PB Blinky lights for LTN 2018!

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 75
    Sales: $724
    Memberships: 7 for $210

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $220
    Tire/tubes: 11 for $88

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

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