Blog

Going Geothermal

Posted on February 16th, 2012 by Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP

via Google images

More and more new commercial buildings are going geothermal as a viable means to reduce energy costs. The 40,000 square foot Central Iowa Shelter & Services building, currently under construction south of downtown Des Moines, features a geothermal system. The mechanical engineer for the project, Alan Langley of Alvine Engineering, says “the trend in Iowa is more buildings are using geothermal systems, in fact about 80% of the schools we design use geothermal systems. Offices and healthcare are good candidates also.” 

Alan also adds “the trend started in Iowa when the utility companies started to provide hefty rebates for energy conserving systems like geothermal”. Basically, the utilities pay companies to lower their energy usage rather than bring on a new power plant costing millions of dollars.

A commercial system costs $16-$20 per square foot so the cost for a geothermal system for a 10,000 square foot building would be $160,000 to $200,000. The payback is typically 5 to 7 years and from day one heating and cooling costs should be reduced by 35%-45%.

via Google images

A geothermal system takes advantage of the earth’s constant temperature. The diagram shows the earth’s temperature near the surface in Iowa to be about 52 degrees. Therefore, the temperature of water when circulated through a closed system of vertical or horizontal loops nears a constant 52 degrees. The loop is tapped into by mechanical equipment which either transfers heat to the loop during the summer or takes heat from the loop during the winter.

An amazing result of the loop is the potential transfer of energy within a building during the winter. The interior zones of a large office building many times require year round cooling while the perimeter usually requires heating. Mechanical equipment removes heat from the interior zone and transfers the heat to the loop. Mechanical equipment at the exterior zone reverses the process and removes the heat from the loop and provides heat where it is needed. Now that is being green!!!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Mis-directed Homes

Posted on February 9th, 2012 by Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP

via Google images

I have always enjoyed a daylight filled room and the warmth of the sun in the winter.  One of the first things people ask for when I am designing their dream home is lots of windows.  I translate that to mean “give me south facing windows so I can be warmed by the sun as I have my coffee and watch the snow fall.”

via Google images

Yet it amazes me, when I see the McMansions in the suburbs of America, how few pay any attention to the direction of the sun.   The shadow cast on this behemoth suggests the large blank wall could face south.  What a shame!  The owners are robbed of one of the easiest sustainable design principles; passive solar energy by just letting the sun shine in and heat the space during the winter.   This is an example of using a stock plan with no attention to the orientation of the house. 

The best orientation for a house is with windows to the south since it is easiest to shade glass during the summer and let it shine in during the winter.  The next best is east so you get light in the morning and not the beastly sun in the summer afternoons.  Since the back of the house typically has the most windows, that means 75% of homes do not have the best orientation and 50% are a disaster (since homes have an equal chance of facing any one of the four directions).

Finally, I was looking to move to the country and was amazed time after time how a new home was built on 10 acres and still faced the street.  Certainly with that much land one could have oriented the house to take advantage of the sun.  I saw many huge windowless walls facing south…must have been the walk-in closet.

Next home, think about the benefits of the sun on your pocket book and state of mind!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Demountable Wall Systems Mounting a Comeback

Posted on February 2nd, 2012 by Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP

via Google images

In the 60′s and 70′s, many big corporations like GE, Principal, and US West installed miles of demountable walls rather than building walls out of metal studs and gypsum board. I worked with a system used at the US West building in Des Moines. It matched the typical demountable wall system….beige with a vertical joint every 4 feet and doors where you needed them. To jazz it up you could provide a side light next to the door. Yippee!!!

Problem was they were just plain ugly. The walls were not used much after the 80’s because workers’ expectations of the work environment increased.

via Google images

Along comes the green movement and demountable walls are being considered again. The difference this time is they look cool and can adapt to almost any style. The walls no longer have the look of 4 foot wide monolithic panels. Systems come in a wide array of wood, metal, glass, and painted finishes. You can even get sliding doors to your office. Surfaces can also be equipped with white boards so you can write on the walls.

via Google images

The demountable wall is more expensive than building walls from scratch but you can take them apart and reconfigure. While a typical painted 8 foot office partition costs $60 per foot and a demountable wall costs close to $75 per foot, it’s still worth it even if you just move them once. A new layout can also be done quicker with the demountable walls and makes less of a mess. That’s very sustainable.

Companies like Dirtt and Teknion are leading the way with innovative design. Ken Kahrs of Koch Brothers in Des Moines sells Teknion and says the demand for demountable walls continues to rise. Ken also says 50% of the cost can be written off and the remainder depreciated over 7 years rather than 30 years for a stud wall.

So, when it comes to sustainable design and construction consider demountable walls.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Workstations are Dropping their Panels

Posted on January 26th, 2012 by Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP

via Google images

Panel systems to provide some privacy and acoustics for the office worker came about in the late sixties by companies like Westinghouse and Hermann Miller.  You’ve seen the typical six foot tall monolithic panel in many movies as an endless sea of gray where one could easily get lost.  Sometimes one color was used throughout…like turquoise!!

via Google images

For years, I encouraged using lower panels so you could see others and not be penned in, but everyone seemed to want no interaction with others.  Then along comes sustainable design and LEED where your design gets points for providing daylight and views for most office workers.  With a wave of the sustainable wand, shorter panels are now being used.

Two credits within the Indoor Environmental Quality of LEED deal with daylight and views to the outside.   Daylight requirements have several approaches, but basically the credit is achieved when all occupied spaces have a level of at least 25 foot candles in 75% of the space.  If daylight provides 25 foot candles to 90% of the space, 2 credits are achieved.  Obviously tall furniture panels block daylight from penetrating the space and providing the required foot candles.

via Google images

Views requirements are the main driver of shorter furniture panels.  One credit is achieved when 90% of all occupants in a space have a direct line of sight to the outdoors between 30 and 90 inches above the floor.  Furniture panels can use glass to meet this requirement if a taller panel is needed.

What does this mean for office workers?  They are more connected to the outdoors and natural cycles.  In the old days of tall cubes everywhere, you could actually lose touch with the time of day or whether it was raining so you could run outside and close your car windows.

Access to natural daylight maintains our circadian rhythms.  I have never heard my clients say they have too many windows.  On the contrary, I have ripped holes in many walls to provide light into what was a cave.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

An Interface with Carpet

Posted on January 19th, 2012 by Rob Smith, AIA, LEED AP

via Google images

The early 1980’s is when I met my first carpet tile.  Now nearly every job I do is carpet tile.   People replace carpet tile not because it wears out but because it “uglies” out!  The stuff won’t die.  I even know of a university dining hall where they cleaned the carpet tile by running it through the commercial dishwasher.  YIKES!!

The manufacture of carpet is not very sustainable since it is made of nylon which is made from petroleum.  In addition, the backing of carpet tile is also petroleum based.  It took a visionary and founder of Interface carpet, Ray Anderson, to question the long term sustainability of carpet tile.  After reading The Ecology of Commerce, Ray transformed his business from a linear model where carpet is made, used, and goes to the landfill, to a circular model.  The carpet goes from manufacture, used, and back to manufacture without any petroleum needed.

via Google images

This sustainable paradigm required innovation.  There were no machines to take old carpet tile and separate the yarn from the backing so Interface built machines.  Nylon manufacturers partnered and figured out how to take harvested yarn and turn it into liquid nylon and spin new yarn.  As a result of this kind of thinking, last year over 350 million pounds of post-consumer carpet was diverted from the landfills and over 80% was recycled.  

via Google images

Now recycling centers are sprouting up to get the recycled product back to manufacturers.  Many times the cost of recycling is cheaper than landfill fees.  In fact, companies like Interface are working with municipalities to increase landfill fees for carpet to ensure the circular model does not run out of product.

What’s in the future?  Already Interface uses no virgin raw materials in the manufacture of the carpet tile backing.  Their 2020 goal is to use no virgin raw materials in any part of the entire carpet tile, just recycled or bio based material.

Sustainable design is really about changing our paradigms and asking pretty simple questions.  Ray Anderson asked if there was another way for his business to make a product and not contribute to depleting a virgin material like petroleum.  He found a way and Interface is now the leading carpet company in the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments
More »
 

Testimonial

On Technology
On Recommendations
On Budgets
On First We Listen

Follow Us

  • Archives

    •  

    2111 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa, 50312 - architects@smithmetzger.com - 515.244.2111
    Copyright Architects Smith Metzger 2011