|
|
Newport Beach School – Designed by Perkins & Will
As Energy Efficiency Showcase With 43 Percent Annual Energy Savings – Honored by California Utility Consortium
A new Southern California elementary school – designed by the award-winning architectural firm of Perkins & Will as an energy efficiency and sustainability "showcase" project with projected annual energy savings 43 percent above minimum state standards – has received a prestigious award from a statewide consortium of California's largest investor-owned utilities recognizing the successful integration of architectural excellence and energy efficient design.
The award, a "Savings by Design Energy Efficiency Integration Award" for "superlative design and creativity fused with environmental sensitivity and innovative energy efficiency solutions," was co-sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison Company in partnership with the American Institute of Architects, California Council. It was presented to Perkins & Will representatives at special ceremonies aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
The Newport Coast Elementary School in Newport Beach (Orange County, California) is expected to achieve a combined 43 percent total annual energy savings – or approximately $15,300 in energy costs – compared to minimum standards to comply with the state's energy efficiency requirements of the California Building Code (commonly referred to as Part 6, Title 24).
The awards jury panel noted that the design team took advantage of the outdoor spaces and natural ventilation, and incorporated daylighting using attention to detail to give the project a good quality of fight.
"The design team provided extensive studies of the design, the daylighting models, and the ventilation simulations that could be a textbook for school design," the jury added.
Groundbreaking for the school was in September 1999 with construction expected to be complete in December.
Most of the project's energy savings – or a 37 percent energy reduction beyond the "minimum standards" baseline – was made possible through the use of natural daylight and energy-efficient fighting and dimming controls in the classrooms and administrative spaces. The remaining six percent resulted from a variety of heating and air conditioning i g savings such as increased insulation in the roof, installing efficient heat pumps, circulating natural air through the classrooms and similar ventilation-related measures.
(Reductions from heating and air conditioning measures were relatively smaller because of the moderate Southern California coastal climate at the site location. In addition, the school was not expected to be a "year round" school initially, enabling the computer model to eliminate most of the three warmer months of the year during the summer break. And, the school's classrooms - spaces which typically generate higher internal heat gains - reduce the amount of heating required during the cooler months.)
Perkins & Will designers worked closely from the outset with architects and engineers in Southern California Edison's (SCE) Design & Engineering Services group, who served as consultants to the project. This special SCE unit promotes emerging energy efficiency technologies that promote sustainability, or the responsible use of land and natural resources.
"The Newport Coast Elementary School project is an important project for us," said Gaylaird Christopher, principal and national leader of Perkins & Wills K-12 education practice. "We'll be monitoring the energy savings closely on this showcase project -alongside our SCE consultants - to determine the accuracy of the computer modeling, the extent of energy savings, and the overall impact on increases in student performance in the learning environment once classes begin at the school."
"Once we have our final 'fine tuning' comparisons, we'll be able to incorporate these energy efficiency tactics in school projects literally across the country and around the world," said Christopher, one of the nation's leading educational architects.
The project design team attempted to integrate a design approach for all building systems to optimize energy usage and improve the overall environmental performance of the school. Detailed energy modeling, natural ventilation studies, physical daylighting modeling and energy efficient fighting designs were conducted on the classroom spaces.
"Schools represent an important customer segment for us," said Gregg Ander, SCE's chief architect and head of the Design & Engineering Services group. "Due to recent statewide initiatives, schools are undergoing substantial construction and renovation to provide more classrooms. This is an opportunity for us to advocate energy efficiency strategies that will help these schools lower their energy use and increase the level of student performance."
The school, a 42,000 square foot K-6 facility on a I 0-acre site overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was adopted by SCE as a "School of the Future" showcase project, focusing on energy efficiency and sustainability in order to create the best environment for learning.
Community focus groups were organized by SCE with the cooperation of the Santa Monica-based think tank RAND Corporation, with educators, administrators and parents of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, to gauge interest in energy and environmental priorities for the school.
School district design committee members called for a school with flexible learning and teaching environments that would accommodate all the new computer technology, classrooms with individual control over space conditioning, good storage and large teacher workspaces.
The school district's first new school in 20 years, Newport Coast win accommodate 700 students. The "built-in" energy-efficient features will be used as a teaching tool in the school curriculum, showing students how an environmentally friendly building contributes to saving the Earth's resources, and reduces pollution and waste.
"We believe school projects are a great way to teach students about energy efficiency," Christopher said. "They can observe first-hand the operation of the various building components and use them for 'real world' research purposes."
The project incorporated remits of computer modeling including the U.S. Department of Energy's "DOE-2" computer energy simulation program to determine the impact of individual energy efficiency measures on the school's 25 classrooms, administrative areas and common areas. The program calculates hour-by-hour building energy consumption for an entire year using local weather data.
SCE consultants also incorporated into the project results of natural ventilation studies using a graphical airflow visualization technique called "computational fluid dynamics," and physical daylighting modeling using half-inch scale models with fight sensors to measure interior daylighting throughout the year.
The design called for exhaust ducts located in the roof used to pull natural air through operable windows into the classroom. At the same time, they will collect and expel the trapped, heated air.
Additional energy efficiency through the use of daylighting in the classroom cluster incorporates fight " shelves" at the windows to diffuse and control natural fight. This will allow the summer sun' s direct solar gain to be minimized and the winter sun's daylight to be diffused and reflected deep within each classroom.
The angles of the ceilings are configured to dispense the reflected fight, providing a more comfortable and enjoyable learning environment, as proven in studies that show natural fight can increase student performance by as much as 20 percent compared to classrooms relying solely on artificial lighting.
In addition, open space between the classroom clusters – centered in four academic courtyards -provides the opportunity for maximum exposure to natural air and fight. These courtyards also provide students with opportunities to both enjoy the Southern California climate and enjoy learning in an outdoor setting. The orientation of the site itself is a deliberate move to efficiently capture the potential of the Southern California sun and the ever-prevalent ocean breeze.
The structure itself is of the Tuscan style, and consists of 2 x 6 wood frame construction, with exterior cement plaster, structural steel reinforcement, and clay file roofing. The facility incorporates high efficiency air-cooled heat pumps, 12 SEER, that provide heating and air conditioning, and a direct/indirect fighting system with energy efficient T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts.
The project also was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a solar thermal domestic hot water collector system to meet a portion of the hot water need for the school. The grant allows the school district to place a renewable energy system onsite to model alternative energy sources.
SCE assisted the design team in securing the federal grant and also provided Perkins & Will with a "green" materials matrix for all major building components to assure maximum use of recycled materials and components in the project, along with lowemission materials assuring maximum interior air quality conditions.
SCE consultants plan to monitor the school through its first full year of use and assess the actual energy and user benefits of the elements incorporated in the project so other school districts can benefit from this information.
In the sunny, temperate, coastal climate of Newport Beach, project goals were to reduce the need for electric fighting while minimizing solar heat gain, and to use natural ventilation for thermal comfort when possible.
The energy efficiency measures incorporated in the project included:
- exterior corridors, and classrooms clustered around courtyards
- operable windows, cross-ventilation, and natural air stratification through stack effects
- exterior sun shading of glazing (windows)
- fight shelves for daylighting
- sectional molding of ceiling planes for improved daylighting distribution
- increased roof and wall insulation
- high-efficiency, direct/indirect fluorescent lighting with multi-level controls
- high-efficiency heat pumps
- solar domestic hot water collectors for preheating (co-funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy)
- strategic landscaping
The "Savings by Design" award, a new statewide program to encourage "high performance nonresidential building design," was one of only four awards presented by the statewide utilities consortium and the only one for a project classified as "unbuilt." The program is funded by California utility customers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.
It was the second major award for the project's design team, which received an Award of Honor earlier this year from the California Coalition for Adequate School Housing (C.A.S.H.) and the American Institute of Architects, California Council, for design of an energy-efficient elementary school in the "project-in-design" category.
That award, included in the Leroy F. Green Design Awards program last February at the annual C.A.S.H. conference, was presented in Sacramento.
For more information, contact Perkins & Will at (626) 683-9455, or on the Internet at www.peridnswifi.com.
|
|
