Company: ACCO Engineered Systems, San Leandro, Calif.

Customer: The Exploratorium, San Francisco

Installation: Radiant heating and cooling system from Uponor North America, including 200,000 feet of Wirsbo hePEX™ tubing and 82 TruFLOW™ Classic Manifolds; a 1.3-MW ac photovoltaic (PV) system; a dedicated outdoor air system for displacement ventilation; and a rainwater collection system.

Completion: April 2013

Objective: Become the largest net-zero museum in the U.S. using a variety of green features, including solar energy and radiant heating/cooling.

Work Completed: Formally opened in April 2013, the new exploratorium incorporates 330,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space at Pier 15 on the San Francisco waterfront, or three times more space than its original location at the Palace of Fine Arts. The new facility has many notable green features, including:

• A rooftop, 1.3 MW ac photovoltaic system, which will handle the building’s entire electrical load;

• A dedicated outdoor air system for displacement ventilation that exceeds ASHRAE requirements by 30 percent; and

• A rainwater collection system, helping to cut annual consumption by 60 percent.

The building also incorporates a radiant cooling system that uses the San Francisco Bay as a heat source or sink. Even without the photovoltaic panels, the renovated Pier 15 is projected to be 57 percent more efficient than the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline standard for a typical U.S. museum.

Quote: “We did not wish to sacrifice comfort for energy savings on this project, and radiant is a premium comfort system. Radiant allows us to heat and cool at the floor level where the people are, rather than attempting to condition such a large volume of air in those high-ceiling rooms.” - Joseph Wenisch, project manager, The Integral Group, Oakland, Calif.

Publication date: 8/12/2013
 

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