Hi welcome to our zero energy school! We'd like to show you around
Emily and I are tour guides for the school. We've done research projects and do tours pretty regularly.
And Nancy here, wants to show you the school from her perspective, with this gopro.
Visual Break
Weeeee
How It Started
They say it all began with a question from the school board
Running footsteps...
We asked the architects if we could do a zero-energy ready school--we assumed a full zero energy building would cost too much.
What Is Net Zero
That's because to be a zero energy building, the school would have to produce as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year. And solar panels can be expensive!
Energy consumption
Renewable production
But we figured out, that if we maximized the energy efficiency of the school, we would only need a small numbers of panels that would pay for themselves by year seven.
School board member
How it was done
Our school saves so much energy with some pretty cool technologies: ICF walls.
Wyck Knox, arcitect
Ground source heat pumps
How it was done cont.
Daylighting
An some smart ventilation
How it was done cont.
But the most important thing to making it work was committing to an integrated practice. The whole team had to work together...
To make a project like this work, you have to be able to share ideas and work together to solve problems.
How it works for occupants
The result is that we also got a more comfortable, healthy school for our students to learn in.
Erin Russo, principal
It took some getting used to, but now the facilities personnel know how to operate the building.
John Chadwick, district operations
How it works for teaching
We study many of the systems of the school in our classes. This year I did a project on...
Today we are going to learn about sunshine.
Greg Rusk, teacher
Cost and other benefits
Even with the net zero features, the school was completed for $1 million less than budgeted.
So that's our school--it's pretty neat, but nothing that others can't do too. If you're looking to build a zero energy school, we encourage you to check out the Zero Energy Schools Resource Hub.