[Greenbuilding] Super-efficient school buildings

[Dan Johnson]

Good architects will know what building features to use. For a planner
working with stakeholders in the early stages of a project, I believe, more
importantly, transportation to/from the school is the biggest ecological
issue faced by most schools. If you can slash the fuel burned for
transportation, the building energy is less important; just do an OK job.
It's tempting to spend a lot of time researching what lighting system to
use, but the elephant is transportation. Perhaps locational efficiency and
integration with existing walk/bike network & policy should absorb most of
the planning budget. For example: http://www.apsva.us/Page/2240. --Dan

Dan Johnson | Design and Energy | 510.325.5672
Assoc. AIA, ASHRAE, LEED AP, CEPE, CPHC | 5500 Kales Ave. Oakland
California 94618

On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 1:42 PM, Rob Dickinson <robd at pobox.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Jason and George, for the good ideas.
>
> I should have mentioned earlier our location, which is in the Pacific
> Northwest (Eugene area of Oregon).
>
> Rob
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2015 at 2:05 PM, Jason Holstine <jason at amicusgreen.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> 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 doesn’t 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. You’ll 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. They’ll 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
>> “Sustain Your Space”
>> 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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>
>
>
> --
> "I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all
> the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends
> I want to see." — John Burroughs (1837-1921) American naturalist, writer
>
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