I wrote about Hood River Middle School's ultra-green music and science building in the February issue of Portland Monthly.
Hood River Middle's new music and science building is Net Zero-certified: it produces more energy than it consumes.
At the design charrette for a new music and science building at Hood River Middle School, students ran the show. They sat up front and told architects from Portland’s Opsis Architecture how they wanted an interactive, transparent building that used renewable energy and captured rainwater to flush toilets. “If you’ve got a middle schooler asking you, ‘Why can’t you do it?’ You better figure out how it might be done,” recalls architect Alec Holser.
Michael Becker, the preternaturally energetic science teacher who spearheaded the project, spurred his students to come up with their own solutions to energy conundrums. “We wanted to build a giant functional laboratory,” says Becker. Collaborating with the folks at Opsis, they set the bar high, shooting for the International Living Future Institute’s Net Zero standard, which requires that one hundred percent of the building’s energy be supplied by on-site renewable energy. The result is the first Net Zero-certified public school in the country, with rain-flush toilets, waterless urinals, rooftop solar panels, a “climate battery” for the greenhouse, and geo-thermal heat pumps. (The building is also LEED platinum.) In the three years that the building has been occupied, the school has paid zero dollars in energy bills. “And at year twelve, for the amount of money we spent, we’ll be in the positive,” says Becker.
The building does use electricity from the grid—but only for a few days each year. “Overall, we produce electricity,” explains Becker. “In June, July, August, and September, we’re a serious energy production center.” The photovoltaic array is mounted on south-facing roofs, where it gets the most sun exposure. For each of the past three years, the building has exceeded predictions, producing three percent more energy than it’s consumed.
The heating system combines a radiant floor system with a geothermal heat pump and pipes that are buried ten feet beneath the soccer field. During hot weather, this transforms into a cooling system: cold water is piped in from a nearby creek, which cools the concrete floor and the building. The building also has an ultra-tight envelope, with triple-pane windows and insulated concrete formwork walls, which explains why the indoor temperature never varies more than two degrees—no matter the temperature outside. (Hood River can get below 8 degrees Fahrenheit in winter.)
But despite the costly solar panels and geothermal heating system—paid for by a grant from Energy Trust of Oregon, fundraising, and a local bond measure—conservation is key. The building has skylights and clerestory windows that let in as much natural light as possible but when electric lights are needed, a sensor dims them automatically when the sun streams in. Kids check the building’s energy monitor daily and if it’s out of balance, they’ll use a handsaw instead of a table saw. As Becker likes to tell his students, “You have to eat your conservation vegetables before you can eat your solar cookies.”
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