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Riverview Elementary School

The Energy Center's Back of the Envelope Calculator was used by NAC Architecture to further verify the efficiency upgrades to the Riverview Elementary School in the Snohomish School District of western Washington.

This 82,810 square foot new construction project aggressively pursued a sustainable design.

For example, the lighting efficiency measures included high efficiency fluorescent fixtures, daylighting controls, and LED site lighting.

A ground loop heat exchanger system coupled with heat recovery coils satisfied the school's heating and cooling requirements. The school district also installed a 100 kW photovoltaic array.

See The Effect of Building Envelope Enhancements on the Energy Performance of Two New Elementary Schools (a White Paper produced by NAC | Institute in collaboration with Hargis Engineers).

The calculator was used by the design team at NAC Architecture to perform quick sanity checks on their envelope upgrades.

• Walls
  Replaced batt insulation with a continuous layer of 6" spray-applied closed cell polyurethane foam insulation
• Glazing
  Specified 1.5" thick, triple-pane insulated glazing with low-e coatings for windows
  Upgraded curtainwall to 2" thick triple-pane glazing
• Roof
  Added rigid insulation, bringing the overall R-value to 45 from 30

Through the combination of all of these strategies, the Riverview Elementary School is expected to achieve 1,386 MBTU in annual energy usage.