Engineers test energy efficient shelters for deployed locations

Shelters such as this one on display at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., are used to house Airmen in contingency locations. Features designed to reduce energy use, such as a vestibule, hard door and shade fly, can reduce energy consumption as much as 63 percent, based on recent tests in Southwest Asia. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jennifer McCabe)

Engineers test energy efficient shelters for deployed locations

New energy-efficient environmental control units like this one on display at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., have a thermal coating and insulated ducts that can help the Air Force cut its expeditionary facility energy use by more than 60 percent when used to heat and cool shelters in deployed locations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jennifer McCabe)

Expeditionary facility energy cut in half

Published April 18, 2014
By Jennifer McCabe
AFCEC Public Affairs

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Air Force recently completed the first expeditionary test of its new energy-efficient shelter system at an air base in Southwest Asia. This follows five years of joint Air Force-Army research in New Mexico, California and Florida.

Standard Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources, or BEAR, shelter systems use up to 13,000 gallons of fuel a day to bed down up to 3,300 people in austere locations. At the expeditionary site, the test shelters reduced energy 63 percent compared to standard shelters. This is equivalent to 2.4 million gallons of fuel a year.

The expeditionary test included eight Air Force shelters and seven Army shelters and ran from August to December 2013. Researchers added shade flys or photovoltaic cell-covered flys, insulated liners, LED lights, thermal reduction coatings, insulated vestibules with flys and hard doors. They also made energy-efficient improvements to the environmental control units.

"While doing a walk-through with the troops, I placed my hand on the ECU and just held it there," said Rod Fisher, an expeditionary modernization engineer at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Det. 1, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. "They were amazed at how the thermal coating kept the metal close to ambient temperature."

Fisher said the thermal coating, insulated duct covers and a new shelter configuration cut the required number of ECUs in half -- one ECU can now cool two shelters rather than one.

The changes not only save energy and money, they also improve living conditions. The vestibules help keep out light, and the liners and flys help soundproof the shelter.

"The energy savings also means less HVAC equipment is required, and consequently, less work load for our Airmen and less airlift support is needed," said Richard Peck, an expeditionary modernization technical analyst at AFCEC.

The shelters are now on their way to Guam for tropical testing. The Air Force will also test the new BEAR System for Load and Installation Management. BSLIM can manage power loads from the BEAR power plant, manually or automatically turn off loads during critical demand periods or to conserve energy, and integrate renewable energy into the BEAR grid.

"If there are unoccupied tents, we can shut off generators. If we lose the power plant, we can go into an 'island' mode," said Fisher. "We'll be able to truly manage our base from an energy perspective."

Tests will continue through 2015.