The Suzanne Lemberg Usdan University Center, currently about 65 percent complete, will incorporate environmentally conscious building techniques beyond those required by state and federal regulations.
According to Project Consultant Alan Rubacha, the use of sustainable materials for the building has added about $3 million to building costs. In addition, the University will spend close to $750,000 upgrading the building’s mechanical equipment in order to achieve energy savings.
“It costs Wesleyan more money to use these energy conserving features, but we put them in because we’re energy conscious, because it’s important to help save energy,” Rubacha said.
The Usdan University Center, set to open in fall 2007, will contain several innovative components, including self-adjusting stove-exhaust hoods that respond to heat differences, an automatically adjusting air pressure system that controls air exhaust and intake, and cooler condensers that produce hot water used for pre-heating sink water.
Less revolutionary but still energy efficient features include automatic dimming and temperature control systems, energy efficient fluorescent lights, and an impervious roof made of natural shale.
The University is committing itself to many of these energy-saving features because of common practices and laws, but Rubacha says that in many cases the minimum requirements are being exceeded.
In addition, Rubacha says that the Usdan Center’s site selection and orientation make good use of its environment.
“We sited the building to the southwest, taking advantage of the sunlight for passive solar energy,” Rubacha said. “We also have the large overhangs to prevent too much of a heat gain in the summer.”
Several trees with a southern elevation will be planted to provide additional heat screening in the summer. The building will also have internal features to adjust temperature and control heat gain and loss.
“We are using an automatic shade control system that is tied into a daylight dimming sensor that senses the amount of daylight and opens or closes the shades,” Rubacha said.
Unique lighting will also serve to reduce energy costs.
“From an electrical perspective, we are using a lot of fluorescent lights with temperature correction to give us a warm light but still be fluorescent,” Rubacha said. “We are also going to have a light dimming system that will ensure lights cannot be turned up to 100 percent. That increases bulb life and reduces energy costs. It also is tied into our daylight dimming system.”
In order to maintain an important balance for air pressure and temperature control, the building will not have any operable windows.
“Some design codes think that it is good to have operable windows,” Rubacha said. “In fact, Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design (LEED) standards recommend operable windows for occupant comfort. However, once you do that you throw your building balance off, and a really good design practice is not to have operable windows.”
Some of the most unique features will be in the building’s cooking areas, which will utilize advanced exhaust systems to adjust energy use and air circulation levels.
“The building’s cooking operation has certain different temperature requirements,” Rubacha said. “In other words, we need to maintain a negative pressure in our kitchens and a positive pressure in our eating spaces, so that we can have a comfortable environment. We also want positive pressure in other non-eating spaces so that visitors don’t have to suffer the odors of a cooking environment.”
Additionally, the numerous coolers inside the building will have condensers that work like those in air conditioners. Rather than sending hot air into the atmosphere as exhaust, the coolers will run hot water that has been condensed from air and use that hot water to pre-heat domestic water for washing hands.
So far the construction is on track to be finished late next summer.
“We’re 65 percent complete and we’re right on schedule,” Rubacha said. “Many of the environmentally conscious features have already been installed.”
Leave a Reply