Laughlin wins 6th consecutive AETC energy award Published Feb. 14, 2014 By 2nd Lt. William M. Tyrrell 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Laughlin Air Force Base has won the Air Education and Training Command Energy Incentive Award Program for the sixth consecutive quarter. "We have worked very hard to ensure that we are meeting major command goals," said Maj. Frederick Peterson, 47th Civil Engineering Squadron Operations flight commander. "Winning six times in a row shows our dedication to reducing our energy footprint." The civil engineering energy team has been brain storming with different units to generate new ideas for the base. "Everyone on the team is motivated and hard working," said 2nd Lt. Charles Heim, 47th CES officer in charge energy management. "We all strive to find better ways to save energy and money for the Air Force." One of the experiments the team has tested is automatically turning on and off the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems during certain times to see how much the base may save. "Our team starts off with one area seeing how well it works and if it is a success then we start spreading it around the base," said Heim. "One of our big projects right now is installing light-emitting diodes around the base." Even though Laughlin is ahead of AETC bases for saving energy, the energy team is still looking at improving previous projects as well as new. "Another project we are starting to work on is our no heat, no cool program," said Heim. "We hold two sessions a year with this program which saves $75,000 a session." This is an award that the CES and energy manager want to keep winning. "We enjoy winning awards but we do this because this is the right thing to do for our future generations," said Peterson.