Building on the success of the prototype classroom, the town renovated the balance of the 1989 wing. Its flat-roofed section is distinguished from the old by the fat trim.
heating degree days, slightly below half of a typical heating season. The lights averaged 25 to 26 hours on per week, and the ERV averaged 33 run hours weekly. Total annual energy usage for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and plug loads was projected to be under 30 cents per square foot annually. It appeared that the prototype could achieve zero net energy—all energy use offset by on-site renewable energy—with a 2 kilowatt solar electric system. If we imagine extending these savings to the rest of the school, it’s possible this school could achieve zero net energy with a 75- to 100-kilowatt solar electric system, costing perhaps $450,000 to $600,000. This seems like a big number, yet compare this to an annual energy cost of about $80,000 for the school—a number that no one believes is likely to go down in the future.
Plainfield voters: Onward Based on our success, the facilities committee and the school board went back to the voters in March of 2010 for a $275,000 bond to extend the prototype classroom approach to the balance of the 1989 building, about 8,000 square feet. The bond passed with 77 percent of the vote. This project included a portion of flat-roof building, providing an opportunity to remedy an improperly pitched roof that had leaked water
School facilities director Bill Knight shows a visitor the AG-150 touchpad controller for the Mitsubishi heat pump that heats and cools the renovated wing.
into the building for 20 years. Because of the previous reluctance to add insulation to the flat roofs, we included funds to have a structural engineer review the entire steel structure and recommend needed upgrades. An additional steel plate had to be welded onto the bottoms of some beams. The portion of flat roof that was part of the 1989 wing upgrade received 12-inch-thick stress skin panels with an EPS core (which provided an overhang for the added wall thickness below) and a tapered foam layer above to properly pitch the roof to drains. The mechanical system for the rest of the wing was a roof-mounted 8-ton Mitsubishi Hyperheat with eleven indoor zones, plus a slightly larger ERV, the EV300, from Renewaire.
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