HIGH PERFORMANCE CASE STUDIES: 300-level
SESSION 36
DATE // START TIME // ROOM NUMBER:
Thursday, September 30, 2010 – 2:00pm – Metro 2A
ABSTRACT:
Design challenges and solutions presented by two of Colorado’s most energy efficient schools, both in challenging climates.
MODERATOR:
Conor Merrigan, High Performance Building Program, Colorado Governor’s Energy Office
SPEAKERS:
Pete Jefferson, Vice President and Principal, M.E. GROUP / design+green
Paul Hutton, Founder, Hutton Architecture Studio
DESCRIPTION:
This session will focus on the design dilemmas presented by two of Colorado’s highest- performing schools, both located in challenging climates. The specific technical considerations to be explored include a choice between geothermal and geoexchange, natural versus mechanical ventilation (in a school district that regularly has wind days), wall assembly and envelope design, and differing daylighting strategies. Both schools are located in a high plains environment with cold temperatures and significant wind loads, and both are designed to reach energy targets in the low 20s in terms of KBTU/SF/yr before adding renewables, (which doesn’t include geoexchange)
Centennial is Colorado’s highest-performing school and Sangre de Christo is projected to be near that level. Both schools are in rural districts and both are required to meet LEED Gold or CO-CHPS as a requirement of their funding sources. Both have significantly exceeded those targets and are continually pushing further.
When a geothermal source was identified for Sangre, the design team immediately saw an opportunity to leverage efficiencies to reach extremely high levels of energy savings; why they didn’t is a compelling investigation of resource use, design challenges, and cost benefit analysis. The unique climatic conditions at each school drove differing approaches from the new conventional wisdom on envelope design in each case, and the strategies for increasing daylight and minimizing electric light varied based on a host of design and owner preference factors.
These schools are demonstrative of Colorado’s commitment to high performance design, made possible through innovative legislation (the Building Excellent Schools Today [BEST] program) and programs emanating from the Governor’s Energy Office (the High Performance Building program). As Colorado continues to get ever closer to net-positive commercial buildings, schools are one of the primary building types to do so.
