[Greenbuilding] Super-efficient school buildings

Mon Mar 16 17:24:47 CDT 2015

Specific to that, EPA has a school bus emissions program:
http://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/csb-overview.htm
http://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/antiidling.htm

I disagree that transportation diminishes the worth of the building¹s energy
budget.

If you can locate the school in a central area where most current and future
planned <18 populations will be, that¹s great on several levels. But school
districts often don¹t get the pick of land; and this gets into whole
thickets of regional planning. Will you have that option? Great idea to tie
into bike/walk network, which I believe Eugene is in on, right?

On 3/16/15 4:11 PM, "Dan Johnson" <dan at designandenergy.com> wrote:

> 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 <tel: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 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 <http://jason@amicusgreen.com>
>>> w: www.amicusgreen.com <http://www.amicusgreen.com>
>>> p: 301-571-8590 <tel:301-571-8590>
>>> tf: 866-587-9140 <tel:866-587-9140>
>>> f:  301-571-8597 <tel:301-571-8597>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 3/16/15 2:21 PM, "Rob Dickinson" <robd at pobox.com <http://robd@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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