Energy Management & Building Science
CA legislation is generating great careers in building management
CA SB 350 calls for billions of square feet of building space to reduce emissions
California's Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act (SB 350) calls for 5 billion square feet of Commercial floor space to achieve extremely high emission reduction levels by 2030 with full implementation by 2050. SB350 is creating well paying sustainable building career opportunities.
There's a shortage of sustainable building automation and control system expertise. The number of commercial and industrial devices and systems connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) is growing at a 20% Compound Annual Growth Rate worldwide, and the labor market supply/demand gap is significant across multiple building sectors.
De Anza College’ Energy Management and Building Science Program is responding to industry growth projections of 15,000 new jobs annually in the Sustainable Building and Energy Efficient Building industries.
Research also indicates a need for approximately 215,000 incumbent workers to be upskilled.
Our students are fully prepared for sustainable building careers when they graduate.
Our Energy Management and Building Science (EMBS) AS degree was vetted by both PG&E and our program Advisory Committee comprised of sustainable building and renewable energy companies and professionals. It has the same (if not more) components as the new degree the Energy, Construction and Utilities sector is just now announcing.
Check out our EMBS Degree and Course descriptions! We have a great track record of placing our program graduates in living wage careers within 3 months of graduating from our programs. Read what the Chancellor's office had to say about us last year!
The Need for Energy Efficient Buildings
Buildings are one of the main sources of energy use, energy cost and energy waste. Urbanization is placing pressure on our cities, buildings, infrastructure and workplaces.
In the next 15 years, there will be 41 cities in the world with over 10 million people inhabiting them. With this explosion in population comes environmental challenges in the built environment. The more energy we use, especially from traditional fossil fuel based sources, the more environmental issues we create.
Energy and other critical resources will be in short supply based on these trends. At the current rate, we would need an increase in energy production of 45% in the next decade to service the projected increase in demand. Generating energy from traditional non-renewable sources, such as fossil fuels increases greenhouse gases which have a negative impact on climate change. Our options are to cut back on energy use by being more efficient and to offset the energy we use by implementing and adopting cleaner forms of energy such as solar, wind and fuel cells.
In the United States, we waste 84 percent of the energy available to us at a cost
of roughly $300 billion each year. Companies pay well for employees who can identify and implement solutions that help
reduce energy costs and eliminate sources of energy waste. We train students to not only make buildings more efficient, but build a business
case for sustainable building ROI that make's decision makers say "YES" to upgrades
We Provide a Differentiating Learning Environment
Our students use the De Anza College campus and the Kirsch Center for Environmental Studies as a living laboratory. Students learn on state of the art building automation and control systems in our classrooms and labs.
Each student learns on an individually assigned training kit equipped with state-of-the art controls equipment. The kit includes three BACnet building controllers of different types, two LCD wall sensors utilizing different communication protocols, and a Jace8000 supervisory controller running Niagara 4.8 software. Employers will immediately recognize BACnet and Niagara as dominant technologies in use today in controls.
In our online classes, students are assigned an individual “virtual machine” running Windows 10 on a campus server hosting licensed building controls software and AutoCAD 2019 which connects to the student’s training kit. The virtual machine is remote controllable from either a Kirsch laptop or from a student’s own laptop (Macintosh or Windows) via a free software application.
Our Building Automation and Building Automation Curriculum and Lab List includes:
· Software Orientation
· Input/Output Device Lab
· Intro to Graphical Controller Programming and Fan Sequence Lab
· Cooling Heating Sequence Lab
· Economizer Sequence Lab
· Variable Air Volume (VAV) Controller Lab Part 1
· VAV Controller Lab Part 2
· Central Plant Chiller/Boiler Sequence Lab
· Graphical User Interface Device and Point Discovery Lab
· Graphical User Interface Air Handler Lab
· Graphical User Interface Chiller/Boiler Plant Lab
· Converting a PDF Floor Plan to 3D with AutoCAD
· Graphical User Interface Animated Floor Plan Lab
· Graphical User Interface Site Plan / Navigation
· Graphical User Interface for User Configurable Dashboard
· Graphical User Interface Supervisory Lab: Schedules, Troubleshooting and Data Analysis Lab
· Mobile and Wireless Lab
· Controls Networking Lab
· Power Monitoring – Working with Power Meters
· Power Monitoring – Load Shedding
· Power Monitoring – Demand Control
· Power Monitoring – Utility Automated Demand Response Program Implementation