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New Gorham Elementary School Project
Conservation Measures
and Alternative Energy Systems
July 2, 2009
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Building Committee, New Elementary School
Re: Conservation Measures & Alternative Energy Systems
This is a letter sent to Burleigh Loveitt, Chair of the Gorham Town Council, by Lyndon Leck, Principal Architect for PDT, the architectural firm hired to design the new Gorham elementary school. The focus of this letter is to explain the various conservation measures and alternative energy systems that will be used in the design and construction of the new school.
June 26, 2008
Burleigh H. Loveitt, Chairman
Gorham Town Council
c/o Town Manager’s Office
75 State Street, Suite 1
Gorham, ME 04038
Re: Proposed Elementary School Energy Conservation Strategies
Dear Mr. Loveitt:
The purpose of this letter is to provide a brief overview for the Gorham Town Council of the various energy conservation measures and alternative energy systems that have been incorporated into the design of the proposed new Gorham Elementary School which will be going before the voters for a referendum vote in September 2008.
The new elementary school is being designed as a K-5 elementary school for 550 students. If approved by the voters, final design would occur through the winter of 2008-2009, construction would start in June 2009, and be ready for the start of school in September 2011.
The State of Maine, at the urging of the Federal Government, has instituted a number of programs which support the design of new public school buildings to be “high performance school buildings” where the design focuses on reducing overall energy consumption and providing alternative energy strategies which results in public buildings that are 30%-50% cheaper to operate annually.
The specific strategies that have been employed in the design of the proposed Gorham Elementary School are as follows:
1. EFFICIENT EXTERIOR ENERGY ENVELOPE:
· Two story construction which maximizes north and south orientation.
· Exterior insulation system providing R24 in the walls and R36 in the roof.
· Exterior air barrier system to reduce moisture migration and air infiltration.
2. MAXIMIZING SOLAR ORIENTATION:
· Provide maximum daylight harvesting with north and south orientation, large overhangs, and exterior sunshades to reduce electrical lighting consumption, and unwanted solar radiation.
· “Solar chimneys” to maximize free cooling with natural convection currents for interior spaces and west facing rooms.
· South facing solar panels to provide solar hot water for the domestic water system.
3. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SYSTEM FOR HEATING AND COOLING THE BUILDING:
· This building will have a geo-exchange system similar to the one at Gorham Middle School. It will use the constant temperature of the earth to provide a large heat sink for both heating and cooling through the use of individual room heat exchangers. This system does not require fossil fuel boilers or large air conditioning chillers or cooling towers to provide heating and air conditioning. This system is expected to save 30% or more on annual operating expenses for heating, cooling and ventilation.
4. GRANTS AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE:
· The project has applied for $161,000 in grant money from the Maine Public Utilities Commission as part of their high-performance school grant program. This money will be used to help fund energy conservation devices such as room occupancy sensors, high efficient lights and ballasts, variable speed motors, daylight harvesting, and energy management systems.
As some of the Councilors know, the Gorham Middle School was the first public school in Northern New England to be entirely heated and cooled with a geothermal/geo-exchange system back in 2004. The State of Maine and the Maine Public Utilities Commission engaged an independent third party engineering firm to evaluate the efficiency and cost savings of the Gorham Middle School. This study is posted on the Maine Department of Education website at the following location: http://mainegov-images.informe.org\education\const\ae002.pdf. This provides an overview of how the system was designed, how it performs and a comparison with similar sized school buildings. The study used data from 2005 and 2006 when oil was still relatively cheap at $1.62/gallon. As fuel oil prices increase at a faster rate than electricity, the cost savings per year for geothermal systems increase commensurately. With today’s cost of fuel oil at $4.40, the predicted payback for a geothermal system is between 7-10 years, depending on how
extensive the building’s summer air conditioning use.
The PUC third party study also compared the Gorham Middle School and the Gorham High School. One of the more significant findings of the study was how much lower the overall energy consumption is for the Gorham Middle School because of the high-performance energy conservation measures designed into that building which were not previously available for the high school. A copy of a table showing the energy comparison for the town buildings is attached to this letter.
Jim Hager, the Chair of the Gorham School Committee, and I would be happy to come and make a presentation or answer any questions the Town Council may have concerning the mechanical systems and the overall energy strategies employed in the design of the new elementary school. Please feel free to call should you have any questions.
Very truly yours,
PDT ARCHITECTS
Lyndon D. Keck, AIA, LEE AP
Principal
LDK.mo
GES-L-26JUN07-Loveitt-ldk
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