McD, utilities and equipment vendors 'TEEM' to test the newest in technology

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 16, 1996 by Alan Liddle

BAY POINT, Calif. -- Imagine a laboratory for energy-efficient restaurant operations that serves Happy Meals, and you'll have an idea of what McDonald's Corp., regional utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and numerous equipment makers are up to here.

Part of The Energy-Efficient McDonald's or TEEN project, the new Bay Point McDonaid's opened in June and is outfitted with a comprehensive array of technologies designed to reduce demand for gas and electricity. On paper the franchised restaurant owned by McD Corp. of San Ramon, Calif., has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 25 percent, or 100,000 kilowatt-hours per year, compared with a conventional unit.

That projected reduction in kilowatt-hours represents an annual savings of up to $15,000, project sources said.

A second TEEM unit recently opened in Buford, Gal. and officials at Oak Brook. Ill.-based McDonald's said others are expected to debut in Chicago and Colorado Springs, Colo., late in the year or in the first quarter of 1997.

Among the energy-saving bells and whistles found in the Bay Point restaurant:

* A computer-controlled heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, which reduces mechanical cooling at those times during the day and night when outdoor air temperatures fall within the desired range for indoor use. Also reducing energy usage are "evaporative precoolers" that ease the load of the air conditioner by using water to lower the temperature of outdoor air as it enters the system.

* Variable speed exhaust fans on the fryer hood and above the griddle, which cycle down on cue, such as when the clam-shell griddle or fryers are idle or doing light duty. The strategy not only cuts back on the use of power for the fans but also, more important reduces the use of energy to "condition" -- cool or heat -- outdoor air for use indoors by decreasing the amount of exhaust.

* Triple-paned windows, which filter out ultraviolet light and allow indoors just 2 percent of the heat from outdoors. Double-pane windows can allow in as much as 70 percent of exterior heat TEEM participants reported. The third pane is created by wedging a UV-filtering film between the two pieces of glass used to make a double-pane window.

* A photosensor-controlled system of high-efficiency fluorescent lighting, which dims or brightens in response to the level of natural light in the restaurant.

* Sensors that turn the cooling system on or off based on the occupancy of the room, not a preset temperature. Occupancy is gauged by the level of carbon dioxide in the air, which is indicative of the amount of breathing taking place. Coolers with conventional controls can waste energy by cooling empty rooms.

* "Light pipes" that capture sunlight striking the roof and redirect it into interior areas of the restaurant not served by windows, such as the rest rooms and storeroom.

* Occupancy sensors that turn on and off lights in the walk-in cooler and freezer.

* Infrared-sensor-controlled faucets and toilets in the rest rooms, which operate automatically when the detect a user.

"Environmental responsibility is something we take seriously at McDonald's," said Bob Langert the chain's director of environmental affairs and energy management. "When you add in that we hope to bring in lower operating costs and enhance customer experience through the use of more natural light and windows that don't let in as much heat, this [TEEM project] makes a lot of sense from a broad perspective."

Langert said one of the inspirations for TEEM was the National Audubon Society's creation of an environmentally friendly headquarters in New York City. Energy experts from the society, U.S. Department of Energy, Commonwealth Edison, Sieben Energy Associates and Tropic-Kool Engineering Corp. worked with McDonald's corporate architecture department to develop TEEM.

Tony Spata, McDonald's manager of building systems, characterized TEEM as a "tremendous cooperative effort between public and private sector organizations."

Don Fisher, manager of Pacific Gas & Electric's Food Service Technology Center in San Ramon, Calif., said TEEM is "unique" in its comprehensive approach to studying energy efficiency. "Typically," he said, "[tests] have been limited to looking at this technology or that."

When it comes to reducing energy usage "restaurants have lots of potential," PG&E's John Goodin said of the less-than-state-of-the-art approach to conservation practiced at many eateries. San Francisco-based PG&E, he said, is hopeful that TEEM will help "float to the surface" the most "viable" and "dependable" examples of new energy-saving technology and that some of the lessons learned by McDonald's "will spill over" into the restaurant community at large.

Among the enticements PG&E used to win a seat at the TEEM table was the promise to create sophisticated computer models of the performance of the energy-efficient restaurant compared with a nearby conventional unit of similar size and age. of data from sensors and microprocessors at the Bay Point restaurant should make the computer model "very accurate" and "helpful to McDonald's in future construction," Goodin said.