Designing a new high school to be 40% more efficient than ASHRAE 90.1 – 2001 energy requirements is a feat in itself. To achieve this degree of efficiency on a very limited capital budget while designing a state-of-the-art, energy-demanding technical high school is an even greater feat.
Patrick Baldwin-McCurdy fields daily indoor air temperature requests from employees and students, but Seattle University’s (SU) lead buildings control technician rarely hears HVAC complaints from the college’s new library addition featuring under floor air distribution (UFAD).
What does a full-scale modernization on a 90-yr-old federal building and courthouse look like when it aims for federal energy goals and LEED status? Chiller plant and hot water/boiler overhauls are just the start. Aggressive lighting and water treatment/conservation strategies also contribute to the GSA’s effort to throw the book at this Alabama retrofit.
Energy efficiency and historic preservation are rarely synonymous. More often than not, one must be compromised for the sake of the other. Fortunately, the University of Arkansas found a way around such compromises when it came to the restoration and mechanical renovation of the school’s beloved Peabody Hall.
Veteran New York plumbing contractor Evan Samouhos was so confident in the potential energy savings offered by a new domestic water booster pump system that he fronted the purchase himself.
As former commercial fishermen who decided to develop their own line of organic oils, the Barlean family was no stranger to innovation. A manufacturer of nutritional lipids products based in Ferndale, WA, family-owned Barlean’s Organic Oils LLC grew so rapidly that it soon needed its own fish-oil production facility.
The largest craft brewer in North Carolina, Highland Brewing Company has grown considerably since it began operation in Asheville as a basement start-up using retrofitted dairy equipment in 1994.
This large complex is welcoming a host of new arrivals, from new boilers and chillers to an
overhaul of its hydronic strategy. Avoiding a whole lot of drilling was one benefit of their new design choice. Balancing first cost, maintenance costs, and the system itself were additional positives for keeping all 225 units comfortable and affordable.
Effective building envelope and air handling designs took comfort most of the way from theory to reality in ISU’s Hach Hall. An existing in-house deionized water supply and a new fogging system finished the task and saved an estimated 22% in humidification costs.