Please stand by for realtime captions >> Please stand by. This conference will
begin momentarily. >> Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone can hear me.
Let me know if you can't hear me well or if you have issues by habitat -- my
name is Bianca Handley. I am happy to be here doing this webinar. I do not
want to take time away from the presenters we have today. I know there will be
a lot of questions at the end. This is part two of Ins and Outs of Facility
Sustainability. I will give a brief overview of we talked about last time.
The last webinar was recorded and is available if you want to watch it. Here
is an outline of today's webinar -- we will go over general topics from last
session. We will see case studies of LEED buildings on national forests and we
will discuss alternative fuel as well as Walter conversation, and water
audits and protection.
The last time, we talked about the categorization of a facilities. As you can
see on the left-hand column, there are three types -- highest energy users at
the USDA are considered covered facilities and there are only 99 of them.
Buildings over 5000 ft.&#²; or using 5000 BTU annually are considered high
performance sustainable buildings. We have 816 of them.
Everything else is in the third category -- we talked about the evaluation
required on covered buildings which can take several days to complete versus
assessments which are required for the HBS be and should take a few hours or
less. So far, we have assessed 70% of the 815 eligible buildings. We also
went over the requirements and why we are doing all of this and decisions
driving us. This includes the EISA executive orders and the guiding
principles.
We talked about the climate change scorecard and the action items addressed.
One main point from last time was the collaboration cooperation necessary
between the climate change core to Nader, the unit green team, the
sustainable coordinator, engineering, and administration. This is a key to get
a yes on the scorecard. So, make sure that this happens.
We also talked about energy and water ECM's. This slide of a straight the
largest activities on site. This gives us an idea of the best targets for
energy and water reduction. You can see in the office of setting that HVAC
and lighting are the biggest energy users. I am always surprised to see one
as irrigation is one of the top uses. This will help you to prioritize things
you are investigating. Keep in mind, though, but we not only want to address
controls and equipment but work toward changing the behavior and operations at
the facilities.
When looking at your facility, don't forget the entire system. Sometimes
simple landscaping techniques I would in a tree in front of the window can
work just as well as installing a new HVAC system. Drs. look at technology,
look at the entire building and the entire system. >> Last time, we went over
the requirements for purchasing green. We are required to use certain
certification when purchased certain appliances. We are required to use low
power setting the think on equipment. We went through a list of side and
tools for purchasing efficiencies. Eight sure to check around when you are
looking for a new printer or new refrigerator and make sure it complies with
purchasing requirements.
I have a question of that someone is not getting audio -- is that everyone
across the board? If you are getting audio, please message me so I know that
you are hearing me.
Thank
you, Jessica.
We also spent time with Kathy in the Intermountain region going over the power
down computers and lights policies. Now we will welcome Bill Dauer from the
white font -- White Mountain national Forest.
That you. I am getting about a 10 to 15 second delay in the slides. This
could be a little uneasy for a little bit. I'm not sure what slide is up
right now.
Your initial
slide -- the case
study slide.
I am going to use the PDF. Welcome, everyone. They give for joining in today.
I will take the next 10 minutes to share some things that we have
incorporated into the new headquarters of the White Mountain national Forest
in the areas of water conservation. I would love to take as many questions as
you have. With that, please proceed to the next slide.
Hopefully, this will show a list of the items that we incorporated. The way I
will do this is to go through these quickly and show you a lot of pictures on
the actual items we have installed. -- Composting toilets. That is probably
the thing we are the most out of here at the new office. Mostly this is
because we have estimated conservatively that we are saving about 80,000
gallons of water annually with the am posting toilet. So far, they are
working nominally. -- Phenomenally. Another great benefit is that they do not
produce methane because we composting they use aerobic digestion as opposed
to an aerobic. We are not contributing to global warming. The final byproduct,
once the composting action is fully utilized, will be fertilizer. The entire
site that houses approximately 100 people -- regular employees and an
additional seasonal employees in the summer, only utilizes about 12 to 15
gallons of water a day. We are proud of this.
We also have a great water -- graywater recirculation system. Minimal water
is being used and minimal wastewater goes out to a beach field.
We have drainage treatment all over
ponds as well as permeable pavement.
concrete.
the site. This is in the form of detention
We have two types -- brick and permeable
Next -- this shows a continuation. We also have flush toilets in a heated
warehouse where we have showers. We do have dual flush toilets and low flow
shower heads. Finally, we have added some rainwater collection and your
addition systems around the building. All of this is primarily to conserve
water, but it is also to demonstrate to the many people we have given tours
to on some of the things that can be done to conserve water.
This is a schematic up a composting toilet system. We chose to go with a full
flush -- foam flush toilet. It is a simple toilet. It has to be somewhat
above one another and then a composter in a basement area.
Next -- this shows operating instructions. The one odd thing about the toilet
that you will see in just a second is that we do have to follow the
instructions which tell you to us the button shown in the picture on the
right before and after use. This creates a foam made of biodegradable soap
and about a tablespoon of water. By pressing the button before you use it,
this lubricates the bowl. It slides down the pipe to the composter. What
doesn't, you hit the button afterwards and it
gone down goes down. Next slide --
owns again and whatever hasn't
This is a picture of the working parts of the foam flush toilets. It is a
mechanical system. It has a small pump and a motor. The tank that you see -the bottle is what we put the soap in. Then, the system creates the phone.
--
The foam.
On the right is the water list urinal -- but it is not waterless in terms of
the chemical type of a lot of people are using. These are simply a type down
to the composter. It is a normal urinal fixture with a pipe to the composter.
This slide shows the composter with the bottom open. That is where we will
take out the compost material. The medium they use to start these are fine
shavings and Pete Moss. -- peat Moss.
Then, they put in 10,000 red
aeration.
worms to consist --
assist with digestion
and
In this slide you can see the barrel -- all we do for maintenance or to manage
the system is every two weeks we take a break and open up the black door that
you see on the top of the composter. We rake things around and loosen things
up and throw in about a half a barrel of new fine shavings. All of the pipe
that you she that -- the pipe that you see -- these come into the composter.
This is the basics of the graywater collection system. It is a fiberglass
tank. All of the water comes down the large white pipe in on the right side
you see the filtration system that we use for mine all -- minor filtration of
the water. This is a picture of the tank -- three pictures of the different
components. Here is the tank opened of -- it has rough filters to filter out
the corn kernels and large chunks. Down in the bottom of the tank is the sum
pump with float valves. We have a timing system so that we can control the
amount of water going into the graywater planters. On the right you see the
canister filters that we use to filter out the remaining particles left.
Here you see the planting system. This is before we put the soil in. It is a
basic variation system. The host that you see running in is the hose with a
small holes in it. Then, the plants are on the right.
This is what it looks like as of a couple of days ago. The plants are going
crazy. They love this. Having plants in side, they are absorbing carbon
dioxide as well as imaging oxygen. Not only that, but the employees love to
watch them grow.
Here is a quick picture of the detention ponds. All of the drainage coming
off the side -- Ruth, parking areas, roadways, goes into a detention pond
before it goes into extreme. The concrete structure on the lower left -- you
can see a line where the detention pond fills up. There is a small hole at the
bottom that allows a certain amount of flow to leave and then as it fills up
and get to the upper hole, the larger whole, there is more flow. If we get
too much runoff, it runs right down into the top and runs out that way. One
of the things -- for those in northern climates -- we constructed the
detention pond shown in the picture to also be snow storage for snowplowing.
We plow all of our snow and we stored at the detention pond so that when it
melts all of the melt off those into the detention pond to clean up the salt
and sediment in the snow.
One of our detention pond -- the botanist is experimenting by turning it into
a constructed wetland. He has planted Tales in a variety of wetland species
that are thriving. We plan to turn the other to -- the other detention ponds
-- into wetlands as well.
This is a slide of the one of the two types of permeable pavement that we
have. This is for more water cleanup and conservation. This allows the water
to go back down and get cleaned up by mother nature. These are brick papers.
Next -- this is permeable concrete. The same principle, just a different
medium. We are working with the University of New Hampshire here to test this
out in the conditions that we have in northern climates.
When I give tours, I tell the kids that at the end of the tour we have a
magic act. I pour water on the permeable concrete and a quarter does appear.
-- Make the
water disappeared.
This is a picture of the typical stellar -- shower stalls. have low flow
shower heads. Next is the dual flush toilets that we have in our a heated
warehouse with the button system that allows you to pick either a large flush
or a small flush depending on how you're using the toilet. Then, we have a
picture of a rainwater collection tank. This is simple -- a lot of you have
seen them. You just collect the rainwater off your roof and a drip irrigation
outlet and close is used to water the flowerbeds or whatever you are
watering.
This shows the potable water system. In the upper left corner is the gauge
that were used to monitor the amount of water we are using monthly. This is
how we know what the daily uses. The rest of the pictures show the different
treatment systems -- water softener and an ultraviolet treats it -- treatment
system -- this cleans up the water instead of having to chlorinated.
Additional things to consider -- green roofs -- anyone who can do this I
strongly encourage it. It was just a little too far out there for the
decision-makers here. Graywater can be used to do a number of things -- one
thing I would encourage to consider if they don't want to go the full opposing
toilet route -- utilize graywater to run through your toilets after running
it through a filtration. That way, you can utilize the water twice before
sending it to a beach field. Graywater irrigation can be used inside,
outside, or anyone else that graywater is allowed to be used. Finally, fire
suppression -- if you have that issue, you can collect water and store it for
buyers.
Finally, this is encouragement to be a true sustainability and conservation
champion. If you are like me, never take no for an answer, or at least not the
first know. Speaking about composting toilets, I was told about 15 or 20 times
that I was crazy. Now that they are in place and working, the employees and
everyone else is proud and impressed. That's all for me.
Thank you so much, Bill. Next,
we have
Stephanie Pickern.
Good morning -- I am with the Trinity national Forest. That is me on the
right in the foreground. We recently did a -- an eagle legal dumpsite me
day. -- Illegal dump site.
that
This was a great project. We recycled a lot of waste -- 73 tires. It worked
really well. It was our first annual cleanup day on the district. We are
planning more of the same for later this year. And annually from here on. It
was a big success.
Next slide -- I am presenting this topic for the environmental engineer
because she is busy right now. I wanted to let everyone know that in 2008,
our forest engineering staff got together and developed a water strategy that
would allow us over a period of years to identify our water systems and
prioritize our efforts to maintain them or install meters for leak detection,
etc. The forest got together and did this. The purpose was to improve our
water supply practices. We would use the American water Works Association
manual 36 is a guy. -- As a guide.
You can achieve that if it's such as safeguarding health, reduce water
and loss, and bumping costs and property and facilities damaged.
use
Next -- the plan is to include water audits as a part of water system
condition surveys. From what I understand, these surveys are performed
annually as staff is available. They were started in 2008. The goal is to
complete 20% or 11 per fiscal year for 100% completion by October 2012. As you
will see later, we have not been able to accomplish this for various reasons.
Funding needs and recommended action needed to initiate water audits -- 25,000
water audits -- $25,000 is needed to install meters and identified [ MUSIC ]
administrative sites.
It is
not cheap.
There are tasks that were identified -- some to be completed by forest service
employees and some to be completed by a contact or working through
engineering. The forest service employees are the engineering staff. Their
tasks were to verify and update systems math and test operation and argument
at all ballots, hydrants, pauses and meters. To measure and record water inflow
use from storage tank and meters and identify and estimate unmetered use. And
compare be deduced against current estimated water use and water losses are
suspected, recommend leak detection action. And, under the deficiencies into
as annual or deferred maintenance with estimated costs for repair and
replacement.
This is ongoing. The desired outcome -- they are having
the targets. They are working on them as they can.
a hard time meeting
Suspected links. These are the tasks we pleaded by a contractor. This involved
installing additional water mattering me shooting devices with distribution
systems or he
Isolator submission system with new valve installations, pressure test
isolated water system sections, identify leak sounds to pinpoint exact
locations, and repair or replace picking parts of the water system. >> I have
been doing some research and talking to people and from what I understand, it
is really expensive to have a contractor come out and identify where the leaks
are in the pipes. White now, there is planning going on to bring in a
contractor to one of the Grounds that has a five-mile waterline distribution
system that snakes around through several different group camps and
campsites. That is one of our target areas.
Many of the recreation sites and other facilities leaks are being identified
in our underground distribution system. Engineering has decided to shift from
we. Isolated legs to preparing whole sections of pipe because they are
finding that a lot of the pipe is so old that there are multiple leaks. Once
they get into that process, then it gets more comp located because they you
have other people involved. This slows down the process of trying to get
these repair.
Prioritized water audits. Administrative, municipal, and campground
facilities will need to be prioritized by source type and monthly operating
costs by each appropriate unit, district, and staff responsible. The
administrative facilities will be prioritized by engineering. We have the
visible administrative water systems at a number of the administrative sites.
The campground facilities -- we have identified the water distribution
systems and the municipal campground water system. This is the way that they
have prioritized which systems they want to audit -- in that order.
This is included in the water strategy. I think it was meaningful to the
people that put this together. It was written by Abigail Campbell, a former
chief of the forest service. She said -- I have often said that water is the
issue we were gone for the rest of our careers. Americans need better
information about the sources and condition of their water supply and we can
facilitate that. As precipitation patterns change, and the demands on water
increase, municipalities and other water providers will be looking to the
forest service for our expertise and to the landscape we manage. What your,
groundwater, surface water and snow will be key to many collaborative efforts
around the country. I really think she had a lot of foresight. That was only
a few years ago and from listening to a lot of the speakers at the national
sustainable operations Summit, it is clear that more and more collaboration is
being initiated between the forest service and other key water users -downstream water users. This is the trend of the future. It is great news.
What of the things that was covered by our environmental engineers -- I asked
about the barriers to completing the water audit. She said that time, funding,
personnel, higher priorities, multiple apartments involved in the process
because sometimes we have the municipalities -- we have recreation and fire
systems all in the mix. Sometimes, it is hard to get everyone on the same
page. Then, NIPA slows it down. They had great vision about what they would
like to do and they had completed this process by October of this year, but
these areas have interfered with the vision. The new estimate for the
projected date of completion is 10 more years for the administrative
facilities. And, the recreation sites -- performing the repairs on those
systems is directly dependent upon future funding for water systems. It seems
like our facility dollars are going down annually. It will make it tricky to
try to get the funding to do this type of work. So far, they have been able to
complete to water systems -- 2 what are systems, or 4% of the total water
systems. That has been our experience. We are getting there slowly but
surely. We still feel optimistic. Some of the things that may be helpful in
the future -- I tried to work with a couple of folks this year that were
interested in doing some their escaping and reducing their water consumption
and one of the things that I am finding for them is that it seems like they
might need to plan as much as a year in advance on about how they are going
to transition to lower water usage. There is a system that one of our district
offices that would have a major leak problem. I was trying to work for them to
get them to take up the whole irrigation system for their lawn and replace it
and put in their escaping -- xeriscaping. It is difficult to do this. Hope
that by next year we will have that
check it off the list.
system fixed. Then we will be able
to
Thank you so much, Stephanie.
Next up is
Ricardo Lopez.
>> Hello, everyone can you
hear me?
I can hear you, Ricardo.
I work for the Angeles national Forest. I am an inspector on two jobs -- one
is the district office -- close to being completed. And the new supervisors
office in the city of Arcadia. I will go through this quickly. I will try to
make it as quick as I can. I will try to focus on some important topics.
The funding for the project was -- we had a rigid see supplemental funds. We
have a project at about 7 1/2 million dollars. The supervisor's office was
funded through a stimulus project. We started off at 12 million and now we are
at 14 million.
For the district office -- construction began in the summer of 2010. As I
mentioned, we are close to completion. The only things that are pending are
the street improvements at the entrance and the LEED certification.
This shows you what the site looks like now. Before it looked completely
undisturbed. It was land that we purchased. Now it looks very different than
how it used to look a couple of years ago. You can see -- there is quite a bit
of side work. There is a new district office that was built. It is about 7400
ft.&#²;. There is a new warehouse and a fire station. >> This shows you what
the building looks like now. There is a lag on the presentation slides. I
will proceed. These are pictures of the building now. You can see some nice
pictures from the night time what it looks like from the outside. These are
pictures from the inside as well. Next -The same thing for the supervisor's office -- we are trying to obtain LEED
certification. That project was started about a year ago and it was a design
build project. It was for replacing the existing supervisors office. That
building is about 24,000 ft.&#²;. We also have some renovations to a big
warehouse building. Some renovations for 2 additional warehouses as well as
side work.
You can see from the slide here -- the existing offices on the left. It is 22
modular is. The side where we are building is on the right. It used to be a
parking lot.
This is a picture of the finished product -- or close to it. We have a picture
of the interior and exterior. The middle picture on the bottom shows you the
front of the building which is emulating a lookout tower. This is a nice
feature.
You can't see the
conceptual drawing.
Next -- I won't focus too much on the actual categories. We are to talk
about this in February. Just to alter these quickly -- and compare some
things -- this is a scorecard for
ACTON. We will look at some items from the sustainable sites. You can see
from the picture that this site was openly undisturbed. It is essentially
farmland. We came in and turned it into a district office. It was expedited by
the fact that in 2007 our existing office
from a fire.
This featured some LEED
we have by crops and --
at the time
burned down. This was
categories. Alternative transportation -- we get -by cracks and alternative transportation.
We have parking in the public and employee parking. We have some parking
stalls that are for fuel-efficient vehicles. We have met the 5% category in
both parking lots.
We have also tried to reduce the impact on the actual site as you saw before.
It was undisturbed land. They great portion of the land was right in the
middle of a big drainage channel which goes from North to South. Basically,
we thought we needed to maintain the drainage, so we built a bridge. We tried
to 18 as much of the native soil characteristics on the site -- you can see
from the picture -- we have disturbed as little as we could. We only added
some baskets and rest for the most part was needed.
-- Native.
We have retention basins. We have
three on-site.
>> Water
efficiency --
We have drip irrigation and potable water that we used for the irrigation
system. We have used drought tolerant plants. Everything is water efficient.
It has worked okay. We had some hiccups at the beginning because of
construction, but once you what to them frequently at the beginning, these
plants and trees will resist the characteristics of the weather out there
which is pretty much the desert.
For energy and atmosphere, we talked about some things. One of the things that
we wanted to maintain was energy performance. Optimized through the building.
We tried to exceed title 24 energy compliance by a given percent additional to
the minimum rate area. Next -- the picture in the back is supposed to be
shown separately -- we have the second picture overlapping. It is hard to
see, but what we tried to do is design of the building with a high clear
storing to give the effect of natural ventilation. On the right -- below the
windows -- there are openings. These allow ventilation to come in with the
cold air and come out to the top at the story level. This shows you the sun
at noon. The reflective roof retracts a lot of the light that comes in so it
doesn't allow for a lot of sunlight to come in to change the heating and
cooling. In the winter, it comes in and because it is a lower angle, the
sunlight comes in so that it acts better with the temperature and it is very
energy efficient.
We also have -- we have been using motion sensors. There is a lot of daylight
that comes into the building. This saves on energy costs from having to turn
on a lot of flights.
We also feature solar laminate -- these are slightly different than what you
see on some buildings. The once we put in give you about 7.5 kW. If you apply
that across the site for a peak time -- 45 hours -- you will have a good
contribution -- four or five hours.
We also have a solar heater for taking showers. >>
We have storage and collection recyclables. You will see some examples
of that. We tried to be as green as we can. We promote the -- we focus in the
office. We recycle as much as we can.
Next -- we also use low a meeting materials in the construction. You will see
that we have been using low emissions materials -- adhesive and sealant,
paints and coatings, carpet systems, and various other products that have
been maintained in the construction of the site -- low emitting. The forms
that they use with a concrete building -- they were used those. We had a lot
of recycling going on. That is one of the criteria.
We have indoor environmental things in place. We discussed the daylight and
views. From anywhere in the building, you can see the mountains. Even if you
are sitting in an office space on the north end of the building. You will see
across to the mountains on the south side of the building. The reason you can
see that is because we restricted the disability on the cubicle space -- the
open area -- and there is a tremendous amount of daylight.
We have LEED certified associates that worked on this project. >> These are
pictures of ACTON from the outside. You can see the fuel-efficient parking
stalls on the bottom. The building is a nice, modern looking building which
is not typical, but we have done a lot of positive comments.
Final tally -- we are shooting for LEED silver. We have not attained our
final certification, but we are close. We hope to have LEED gold.
Looking quickly at
criteria.
Arcadia -- the
scorecard -- we have similar
comparable
We will feature items under sustainability. You can see on the left that that
is the parking lot. That is where the new building is now. It was a sight
that was used as a parking lot. Now it has the construction going on. One
other thing that we incorporated is that the city of Arcadia financed the
public transportation site under construction and expected to be completed by
next year or 2014. We then it to get a credit for having close proximity to a
public transportation side about half a mile away. Also on-site, we have the
same parking stalls you saw him a but we have low emission vehicles, and
electric vehicles and carpooling.
We also have special routes on the building -- cool roofs. We have a lot of
insulation. >> Water efficiency -- we have drought tolerant plants and we
are trying to recycle as many of the on-site pleasantries as we can. We are
using potable water which will be a good reduction in the use of irrigation.
Next -We are also optimizing energy performance. As I mentioned, we have a lot of
insulation in the the things -- we have our values on the roof. We are using
permeable water membranes and insulation barriers around the building before
the Redwood is applied.
We also feature reuse of materials. You will see that we used some of the
existing older is and stones. We have used these from construction and
operations on site. We maintain a lot of their reuse and we will be able to
use a lot of the folders on the facility. Also, the siding on the existing
buildings -- the picture on the left will get demolished, but we had we have
been able to take a lot of the boards and use them on the warehouse building
on the right side.
You saw a picture of the
existing and the
new building.
We maintain the same daylight and visibility as much as we can. We apply the
same right area as we did from ACTON. You can see the mountains from the
supervisor's office and on a lot of other sites on the second floor. We also
have a fitness room which features a clear story and this also has
ventilation and allows for this to go through the entire room.
We also have LEED accredited professionals. >>> On this new version of LEED,
we qualified for credit . If you look up the zip code where you are putting a
new building or renovating and you look up the criteria for the specific zone
-- what they are encouraging people to build, and in our case it was
something we have implemented. We wanted to do this. We wanted to maintain the
disability and the lighting in the building. We will fight for that credit
as well.
-- We qualified.
You saw the scorecard -- we are requesting the current scorecard to make sure
that we have a total tally of points needed for goals -- gold. We are hopeful
to get gold.
The last slide has pictures of the building. It is close to construction and
almost looked complete from the outside, but there is a lot inside the needs
to happen. The project is about 80 to 85% complete.
Thank you, Ricardo.
Next
we have Linda Zaleon.
Thank you, I will present the ranger station. This project started in 2004.
We got some pilot authority to sell an existing center and used the money to
build a new district office. This project was to meet LEED silver
certification. The points required to reach silver -- you can see the
threshold. We got 40 point -- 42 points for our new building. >> As you can
see, about two thirds of these points were achieved during the design. This
drove the form of the building and also the site we had available was a
beautiful blossom -- blocks -- block overlooking the mountains. >>
Truckee We got have the points from water reduction. This is the view
that you have at the mountain.
The south facing side of the building at the top of the bluff is a 2 story
solar or door. -- Corridor. There is a slide that shows this space in
relation to open office space and private office space. Basically, the
orientation of this building sitting east west facing the south drove an open
floor plan. The goal was to that both heat and light into the building by
this corridor.
Here is a schematic of the sun space. You see this on the right. That shows
the open offices on the first and second floor. The second floor is actually
a balcony. It has some challenges related to noise. And allowing the air to
flow. Then, the private offices are in the fourth side. The basic heating for
this building is both the first and second floor offices sitting on an 18
inch platform that provides the heating and cooling for the building.
This is again looking at the South side. The architect put in some roof
overhangs to minimize clever and there is also light shells on the exterior
and interior of the space to allow the sun to enter the building as deep into
the open offices as possible. On the right you see
the purple walls -- thermal walls.
one of the open offices and
Next -- I put this slide in to give you a quick look of where the airflow is
going. In the center of the building, were you see the red arrows, there is a
light well going from the roof down to the first floor. At the top of this is
a skylight and also a mover. -- A loser. -- leouver.
This is a picture from the north side of the office showing the
leouver. This was to allow the escape of exhaust. One of the challenges
is that with snow buildup we have -- even in the winter, these louvers all
been to help cool the building and the air flows down to the employees on the
second floor.
These are some of the
lessons learned.
Here is a picture of the South view. This is from downtown Truckee. This sits
atop the bluff. Immediately below it is clean up -- this site was on a
residential top that had contaminated soil. It was on an engineered slope
directly below the building. On the right you see the front of the building - the north side. You see the retention basin -- to capture storm water.
We exited the water efficiency requirements of title 24 by installing 1.1
gallon per minute water closets and waterless urinals.
Here is a picture of the underfloor Plenum you see the white insulated
hydronic system that feeds it -- there is a heater in the underfloor of all
the private offices. Those are the pipes you see on the right going into the
rooms on the right. There is something shown in the left and right photo
where the underfloor Plenum was covered up with a steel and concrete axes -access panel and covered with carpet. That is the photo on the right. It is on
the second floor.
There are light wells on the left where the person is standing.
There are a lot of materials and recycled materials that were used.
material that was diverted from the landfill during construction.
And
Indoor air quality -- this was a big contributor to our LEED points. All of
the products were low BOC -- there was no formaldehyde in any of the
products. Also, we have natural daylight. On the bottom left picture, the
first floor open offices looking toward the south. You can see the Windows.
You also see the light coming down from the light wells above.
The middle photo is the second floor. The areas where you can see the light
projecting on the ceiling -- these are light wells also. On the right is an
example of the view from -- on the Southside.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned. I would be happy to share these. I
put in a picture of accessing the underfloor controls -- this is a challenge
because right now the floor has furniture over it and it is not easy to
access.
Here is a picture of our winter from last year. For lessons learned -- the
windows are all covered up and the louvers have snow stacked against them.
These are things to think about in the design.
That's it. Thank you.
Take you, Linda. Next week
Lira.
have Jerry Stephenson
and Don
I apologize I do not have photos -- think of Brad pit and
think of the opposite -- that's what we look like.
George Clooney. Then
I wanted to put this caveat in there -- this is for tired Tory -- proprietary
product -- we are not trying to market any specific companies. The other
thing -- the things we will present -- several of them did not lend themselves
to monitoring in terms of the financial payback and some of that is selfevident.
We were contacted to present on this woodfired boiler that we put in a
dwelling. It is in Fairplay, Colorado. It sits at 10,000 feet. It is in South
Park. That is from the cartoon fame.
I will now turn it over to Dawn to explain the
engineer for this installation.
mechanical portions. He was the
This installation consisted of air water heat exchanger -- a sickly in air
handling unit mounted in the basement of the dwelling. This was for forced
air heat. It included a watcher to water heat exchanger on a hot water tank.
The wood boiler -- it is fired by would. Depending on the heat demand -- it
could last anywhere from 2 two -- two through four days. The building houses
approximately 400 gallons of heated water. When the system demands, the water
is pumped from the boiler into the handler or the hot water tank. When the
temperature in the storage tank in the boiler unit drops, it reignites the
smoldering wood. That is the operation.
Next -- here are some other pictures of the installation of the boiler. It
was done outside on the back of the dwelling in Fairplay. It is a singlefamily dwelling. It is about 2700 ft.&#²;. It does have propane backup so that
when the unit -- the occupants gets to stock the boiler or the Jupiter drops,
a burner will come on to help maintain the tank within the boiler unit.
This is a picture of the firebox. This is where the propane niter is for the
wood. Also the auxiliary burner. It is loaded with one on the right. That is
the burn chamber. This will take logged up to 32 inches in length.
Next -- the controls are on the back. The burn control motor has a slide on
the left. The ash removal pan is on the right. The tools are supplied to
maintain the firebox. We used a proprietary connection from the central
boiler. It is a unique it to be. It has the supply and return it runs within
a -- cased in hard thermoplastic tube. It is 4 inches in diameter. This is
encased in the red railing to keep people from going back. That material
does not have to be buried. It has minimal heat loss in the transfer tubes.
>> As of this point, there are no significant issues. We had some initial
complaints about smoke. It depends on the evil living in the dwelling to keep
it running.
And we are estimating -- the person that is there is being religious about
keeping it stocked with wood. There were no complaints and no operational
problems whatsoever. This is an extremely cool place where they are located
and has a high heat demand. We are estimating about $2500-$3000 a year or
saved. It was a front-end -- $39,000 included ripping out the old unit and
doing some free ducting, but it is fairly expensive on the front-end. It will
be a ten-year payback. That is our hope. >> This continues not -- we are
humbled here after the previous power points with 10 or $14 million.
Congratulations for getting that work underway.
This slide is hard to see -- this is what we call a transpired solar wall or
we installed it on the end of a 2000 ft.&#²; workshop building. It was done
in 2005. Time flies. It was seven years ago. It cost $14,000. It has a
mechanical system included, but it is about as low-tech as you can get.
Basically, when the sun is out, which it frequently is in southeastern
Colorado, it heats up the wall. Then, there is a blower fan that thermostatic
Le draws air in.
That is a close-up. The entire wall has these perforations. The blower system
is designed to create a negative pressure across the wall. Every single one
of those theoretically has the same amount of heated air gone through it.
It is hard to see in the slide, but at top is what we call the Sox. When the
fan is on, that thing pops out like a balloon almost. It extends the entire
length of the building. The other thing we did is a part of this project is
that we did your thing phone installation sprayed through the entire inside
of the building. You might see up on the roof -- urethane foam.
There is corrugated metal and the coronation came through the foam. You could
see it through the foam. In addition to providing better insulation is that
it provided a lot better in terrier light reflection. It was a dark facility.
This did not lend itself to an injury monitoring -- and entering -- energy
monitoring. We wanted to try out this technology. During periods of non-use,
it kept things from freezing and made it more comfortable when you first came
in. Then, if you needed it, as you can see on the top, there is a gas fire
radiant heater to provide personal heat. >> Next -- these are from the
companies. Their website -- we pulled off their applications. We did this in
2005. I had not been on their website in quite sometime. I think they have
done a lot more -- that sock for the distribution, I don't think they use
that anymore. It was a concern -- that it would fill up with dust because
there was no filtration unit. Apparently it is not been a problem. >> The
only thing we have had is that the thermostat failed. That is a pretty cheap
fix.
We have two of these -- we got our first one with a micro grant. They are
low-tech. They are neat little things. In the photo, the top panel is a small
maybe 20 or 25 W panel. When the sun heats up the material, it naturally
would activate the fan connected to the unit.
Next -- they have two different systems. The one that we use is the wallmounted -- the direct vent area did you can also mount them on your roof with
a booster fan to drag the warm air down.
Next -- that is a quick things from their website to show some other
applications. This is a photo of one. You can see the scale. These were two
units that we bought -- the one fan was enough to draw the air through both
panels. In this one -- you can surface mount or in this case we were filling
in a garage door. We did a recessed fit. That is all there is to it. The
intake draws the air in and the controller is a thermostat that will
override the PV and fan if the temperature is not warm enough in the unit and
the wall diffuser.
This one -- I am not proud of the housekeeping, but that was the first unit.
That is on the side of a sign shop. People love them. Just like the
transpired wall -- it was not intended to provide constant interior
conditioned air. It was more supplemental. It was to reduce the heat load.
They have been working great and had no operational issues whatsoever.
That is it. Take
--
Thank
you.
you.
Upcoming sustainable learning opportunities -- tune in on April
Our operator will start to take questions now.
To ask a question,
when prompted.
please press *1 and
While we wait for questions,
the phone?
mute your
18 and
May 2.
phone and get your name
we have one question for Bill --
are you still on
I am still there.
This is from Gary -- he wants to know if you have had problems with education
growing between the papers and if so, how do you control it?
So far, we have not. So we have not had to control it. We have spoken with
the botanist in the event that we have issues we intend to deal with them
once some kind of spray.
Thank you.
Any questions?
The first is from Jim [last name
Please check your
indiscernible] -- your line is open.
mute button.
I am Jim the Guinness. I am very impressed with all of the presentations
today. It is exciting to see this happening across the country in such a way
that is utilizing the various environments that exist across the nation to
augment our energy savings. A couple of questions for everyone involved. Are
any of these sites or facilities that you talked about -- have any kind of
charging stations for electric vehicles for employees that want to take
another alternative which is to drive the electric vehicle? We have these
things coming on strongly these days.
The second question is for the last presenters about the solar sheets -that -- is there a payback of that you have been able to find on those?
is
There could be. People do use these if you go to the website you will see
photos of people using them with their homes. But, here it was impossible
because of the applications. They were not well conditioned or permanently
conditioned to the building. They were intermittently used in workshop types
of places. We never entertained trying to maintain constant conditions.
Thank you.
The first question -- are any of the facilities that have been talked about
today considering or have you put in any kind of electronic charging stations
for employee vehicles?
In Los Angeles, we have talked about doing this for our facility.
not to because there is a little bit of discussion about whether
appropriate to allow a charging station with the idea that people
to charge their personal vehicles. We are going back and forth on
It is not something that we have lamented -- implement it in Los
We decided
it would be
would want
that topic.
Angeles.
This is Bill on White Mountain -- we have installed these charging stations in
New Hampshire. So far, the only thing that is been plugged into them has been
an electric bicycle that one of the employees own. We are ready for electric
ankles as soon as they show up. As a side note, the EPA is in the process of
putting out maps for public use and for governmental use for people commuting
or driving and need a quick charge. We have not gotten on the public site for
the same reason that Ricardo mentioned. We are not sure what the policy is
nationally about providing electric charge for the general public. But, we are
on a map for any governmental electric vehicle in our area that needs a
charge that can go on an application or a website and find out where charging
stations are.
Thank you.
If there are any questions,
please
press *1.
This is [indiscernible - low volume] from
region 8 . We are different in
terms of the water issues in the climate. One question on your composting
toilets. What was the primary driving factor? I heard you say you got a lot
of nose before you selected that option. -- A lot of nos. You may get that in
this region. We have not used this unless it is a last resort. I can
understand why. I could understand -- the cost effectiveness and the yuck
factor.
I wanted to hear from you how
you solved
it is.
First, we wanted to get a LEED certification -- minimum sober. We are about to
get a gold rating. We wanted to demonstrate as broad and wide a variety of
sustainable components that we could. We had a champion here in New Hampshire
that had done one of these. We visited that. We talked to the operators. They
loved it, just like we do now. We decided that it was worth giving it a try.
In the Northeast, we typically don't worry a lot about water like folks in the
West to do. We typically have plenty of water to go around. But, we wanted to
demonstrate that the forest service is a sustainability champion and we care
about water. We saw this in the quote. We wanted to demonstrate the technology
that people could use to say water. Some day we wish that we had always saved
a lot more water.
That is true, Bill. I am in it region eight and
same page. You probably have fewer issues.
nine -- we are both on the
Another thing that I made an observation about -- there are two issues with
water -- one is over use and the issue of how we protect the watersheds of
the water for the public utilities. These are two separate issues, in my
view. I think that this is a good message, but that was more for the water
that we steward for the general public on a large scale. That is my view. It
was to show that you saved
a water shortage issue.
water -- not that it was a water
disposal issue or
No, we wanted to demonstrate the technology. I believe that they are
connected. Consumption is one side of the sustainability effort and the less
we consume, as I learned in elementary school science, there is only a small
percentage that is drinkable on the earth. The more that we pollute and
waste, the less we will have Sunday to use. Or, we will have to pay a lot of
money to clean it up. The more we can save now and the more that we can
reduce our consumption, the same with energy. As far as the yuck factor -- I
will be honest -- there is a have factor, but I like to tell people a secret
-- when I give tours -- humans do that. It is just something we have to deal
with. We have to get the odd the yuck factor. It is not that bad. Every
couple of weeks we take a break. We do some raking. We throw in some more
fine shavings and that is all we do.
That's great if it is working for you. Here in this region, there is not a lot
of support for this. We have a low flow system.
My recommendation is to just
believe in it eventually.
do it. Don't take a vote, just
Thank you for the question. Here
toilet project cost?
is a follow-up -- how much
do it. They will
did the composting
The toilets cost wise I don't have the exact cost. If someone can e-mail me,
I will track it down. The entire project for the entire site was a leather
million dollars. -- 11 million. We are getting a gold rating. I'm sorry I
can't answer the specific on the cost of the composting units themselves.
I will direct them to e-mail
you.
Anymore phone questions?
No questions at
this time.
If there are no other questions, thank you, everybody, for coming and check in
next time -- April 18 will be the next meeting -- sustainability leadership
footprint area.
Thank
Thanks.
you.
>> [Event
concluded]