MARBLETOWN: Benchmarking Town Government Energy Use

The charts below are reported in kBtu, or thousands of British Thermal Units of heat content.  Heat content is a measure of the amount of useful energy in any fuel, and is used to allow electricity, propane, and fuel oil use to be displayed on a single chart.  The following table shows the conversion factors between kBtu and kWh of electricity, and gallons of propane and heating oil.

Energy equivalencies table

Overall Energy Use

Marbletown government’s overall energy use fell in 2020 compared to 2019 mostly do to one-off factors resulting from the pandemic, such as many town employees working from home and the clostown offices, but also because of the effects of energy efficiency measures at the Community Center and the removal of some streetlights in 2019.

Highway Garage Energy Use

Electricity use at the Highway garage was lower in early 2020 due to remote work conditions.  Note that fuel oil deliveries are not monthly, so use in months when oil is not delivered can seem high due to several months’ usage being attributed to a single month.

Old Town Hall Energy Use

Marbletown’s old town hall in Stone Ridge is leased by the Rondout Valley Food Pantry.  The Town pays all energy bills and the fuel oil tank is shared with the Highway Department garage, which is immediately behind the building.  The Highway Department also has office space in the old town hall building.  Some of the fuel oil used in the  garage above is actually used for heating this building.

The slight increase in electricity use in this building in 2020 compared to 2021 is likely reflective of the increased demand for the Food Pantry’s services due to the pandemic.

Rondout Municipal Center Energy Use

Marbletown shares the Rondout Municipal Center building in Cottekill with the Town of Rosendale.  Part of the building is leased to third parties, including the Rondout Valley Growers Association and Mid-Hudson Arc (which runs the Blackboard Bistro.)  Responsibilities and energy use for the building is shared 50-50 with Rosendale.  The chart below shows Marbletown’s 50% share.

Note that fuel oil deliveries are not monthly, so use in months when oil is not delivered can seem high due to several months’ usage being attributed to a single month.

Energy use at the Rondout Municipal Center fell significantly in 2020 due to the building being first closed or operating at part capacity for most of 2020.

Community Center Energy Use

The Marbletown Community Center on Main Street in Stone Ridge is used as an event space, both by the Town and the public.  It also houses the local chapter of the American Legion, the offices of the Town’s Youth and Recreation Department, and an electric vehicle charger attached to the Community Center Annex building.

The Town completed extensive energy upgrades to the Community Center in late 2019.  This cut energy use in the building with added insulation, and shifted  most of the building’s heating to cold climate air source heat pumps.  While fuel oil and propane deliveries were much lower in 2020 than 2019, how much of this decline is due to the building upgrades is difficult to determine, since the building was shut down for most of 2020 due to Covid.

Town Park (Tongore) Energy Use

Marbletown Town Park on Tongore Road uses energy mostly for lighting. 

Higher winter usage is largely due to longer nights, leading to more area lighting, and the heating requirement of the bathroom to keep it from freezing.

Streetlight Energy Use

Marbletown two street lighting districts for the hamlets of Stone Ridge and High Falls, as well as a General district for streetlights in outlying areas. Central Hudson completed the conversion of all our streetlights to LED in february 2018, which is why electricity usage fell in March 2019.

Streetlight use is seasonal, with more electricity used for lighting on longer winter nights.  The high usage in December 2019 and low usage in January 2020 is due to bill timing.