[Greenbuilding] Super-efficient school buildings

[Jason Holstine]

Rob,

Some of the factors will depend on where you are, your climate, your
politics, and state/local funding mechanisms available. USGBC has an entire
sub-practice dedicated to schools and there are regional and national
conferences just for green schools (mid-atlantic was just a couple weeks
ago).  It doesn¹t take much googling to find case studies and practitioners.

Certainly, a wise goal is always to minimize total energy demand, and
efficient HVAC systems to best meet the forecast demand. You¹ll want to
maximize natural daylighting b/c it also has proven to improve student
achievement. As a small case, my wife is a teacher at one of the first LEED
Platinum schools, which is now Tier II (lower income), and the results are
noticeable beyond the test scores (such as attention).

One of the base arguments to make‹which you have your finger on‹is that
maximizing EE and water efficiency will reduce operating and maintenance
budget factors over decades, which is critical for school systems to free
expenditures towards curriculum. They¹ll want to set-aside some budget for
training maintenance staff on what will be new technologies to them.

HTH,


Jason Holstine

Amicus Green Building Center
³Sustain Your Space²
e: jason at amicusgreen.com
w: www.amicusgreen.com
p: 301-571-8590
tf: 866-587-9140
f:  301-571-8597



On 3/16/15 2:21 PM, "Rob Dickinson" <robd at pobox.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> I am participating on a school board advisory committee considering options
> for building a new school in my community.  We're charged with considering and
> making recommendations for the general scope of the project (such as the size
> and # of students to plan for, the design features that we hope will be
> incorporated, etc.), along with considering how much money we can reasonable
> expect the community to support in terms of bond financing for the project. 
> 
> In addition to wanting to achieve the educational goals of this new school, I
> have a particular interest in seeing that any new buildings that we construct,
> including public buildings, be built to very high standards of energy
> efficiency and with sustainable materials where possible.
> 
> On the committee, I expect to be regularly raising the benefits of investing
> in energy efficiency up front, when the greatest gains can be had for the
> least dollars, relative to either spending way more for energy costs in
> operating the school over the course of the next 60+ years, or spending way
> more to retrofit in energy efficiency in later.
> 
> I'm curious if you have any particular suggestions for what the district
> should prioritize in terms of energy efficiency features and construction
> requirements.  I would think that the ordering would be roughly similar to how
> one prioritizes for residential construction, with a primary focus on the
> longest lasting components and those hardest to change later, such as the
> building envelope and insulation models, air tightness and ventilation system,
> and highly efficient heating/cooling systems, lighting fixtures, etc.  I would
> also think that this would be a good time to invest in renewable energy
> systems like solar PV, which is at a very low price point, and that a bare
> minimum would be to pre-wire for solar. In Oregon, I believe there is a state
> mandated requirement that 1.5% of a project budget be allocated towards
> renewable energy systems.
> 
> I would love to see the school built with a high-R-value wall system, using
> either a significant amount of exterior rigid foam insulation or double-stud
> walls, or both.  I remodeled my own house to have 9" double-stud walls filled
> with dense-pack cellulose and 4" of polyiso rigid foam exterior insulation,
> with similar (or greater R-value) assemblies under the house and in the roof.
> 
> In residential construction, I take inspiration from the Passive House
> standard, focusing on super insulation and very strict air tightness
> standards.  I think the same general principles should apply for school
> facilities, but I do have questions around how the ventilation requirements
> should differ, given the much greater human occupancy.  Obviously the
> ventilation rates need to provide for adequate fresh air intake, but I'm
> curious as to the health/wellness concerns when you frequently have many sick
> kids inhabiting the same space as healthy kids, and how that level of
> ventilation affects HRV/ERV designs and capacities and the benefits of air
> tightness.
> 
> I would welcome any ideas on construction of super-efficient school buildings,
> including:
> 
> 1) construction practices
> 2) wall, roof, and floor assemblies
> 3) ventilation designs and practices
> 4) incorporation of renewables
> 5) incorporation of energy monitoring or other systems approaches to reduced
> energy usage
> 
> I would also appreciate any references to great projects that we should be
> aware of and perhaps using as models.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Rob Dickinson
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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