ASHRAE Recognizes Outstanding Achievements

Pierre-Boucher Hospital
Pierre-Boucher Hospital
Numerous awards and announcements are being made during ASHRAE‘s 2011 Winter Conference being held this week in Las Vegas. The F. Paul Anderson Award, ASHRAE’s highest given for technical achievement, is awarded for notable achievement of outstanding services performed in the HVAC&R field. The recipient is Presidential Member Richard P. Perry, P. Eng, Fellow ASHRAE, Life Member, senior engineer, emeritus, DEC Design Mechanical Consultants, Ltd., New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

The 50-Year Member Award is given to persons who have been a member of the Society for 50 years and have performed outstanding service to ASHRAE or its predecessor societies. The recipient is Richard Wright, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, Life Member, who resides in Algood, TN.

The ASHRAE Technology Awards recognize outstanding achievements by members who have successfully applied innovative building designs which incorporate ASHRAE standards for effective energy management and indoor air quality. Following are summaries of the winning projects.

Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2), Stanford University
Amit Khanna, Arup, San Francisco, CA, receives first place in the new institutional buildings category for the design of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building, Stanford University, Palo Alta, CA. When Stanford Trustee Jerry Yang took Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on a tour of the new building, known as Y2E2, Boxer told the Yahoo! Inc. co-founder, “This is spectacular. It gives me a lot of hope!”

Y2E2 exemplifies a new kind of thinking aimed at providing watershed solutions in the areas of environment, technology and energy. It is the first element in Stanford’s new Science and Engineering Quad 2.

The energy performance emphasizes load reduction, passive operation and efficiency, energy recovery opportunities, including self-generation, and allows for successful carbon-neutral operation through offsets. Y2E2 has post-occupancy verified energy consumption 44% below Standard 90.1-2004. In addition, the building spaces are either naturally ventilated or served via 100% outside air-handling units, maintaining high indoor air quality at all times.

Other highlights include north and east facing offices with adequate façade opening and solar protection to maintain comfortable conditions with no mechanical cooling or forced ventilation, achieved through the Adaptive Comfort Criteria in Standard 55, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, and computational analysis; use of active chilled beams, making Y2E2 the first of its kind in California and among the largest buildings in the country to use them; and a natural smoke ventilation system. Y2E2 achieved a level of energy performance for a +0.9-4.6 percent premium that will pay itself back in four to six years.

Pierre-Boucher Hospital
Gilles Desmarais, DESSAU, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, receives first place in the existing healthcare facilities for the rehabilitation of Pierre-Boucher Hospital, Longueil, Quebec, Canada. The building is government owned and managed by CSSS Pierre-Boucher.

Because of growth in ambulatory service needs, over 100,000 square feet, including a new hospital wing, operation block, and laboratories, were added, as well as over 90,000 square feet of the existing hospital reorganized. By combining low-temperature water loops with a dual-compressor recovery chiller and a direct-contact condensing stack economizer, the design team was able to recover a significant amount of energy that would have normally been evacuated outside. Enthalpy wheels also were added in the fresh air units to reduce air heating, cooling and humidification loads.

The design isn’t set apart only by its high performance but also the original way in which it was designed. Quebec’s extreme winter temperatures require energy management more complicated than most areas. Through the use of building energy simulation software, designers evaluated different solutions before choosing the most efficient and cost-effective one. This led to a million dollar self-financed innovative project.

The hospital’s innovative and efficient design significantly reduced energy use: reducing yearly natural gas consumption by 64% for the expansion area and 15% in the existing area in spite of the increase of ventilation rate in the rehabilitated part, which also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 1,152 tons a year.

Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation
Yury Lui and Charles Eggert, HP Mission Critical Services, Chicago, IL, receive first place in the new public assembly category for the Jewish Reconstsructionist Congregation, Evanston, IL. The building is owned by the Congregation.

The new synagogue replaces its original building, balancing the limitations of a small site with an ambitious program that promotes worship, education and community objectives. Its innovative measures include use of displacement air diffusers that were carefully designed to integrate with architectural elements. Wood slats screen supply and return ventilation making them essentially invisible to the users while still permitting supply air to stratify in the room. The building’s showcase three-story staircase was positioned for south exposure, which allows the air to act as a thermal buffer zone to capture solar and exterior heat gain. The staircase is equipped with outside air intake openings at the first floor and an exhaust air hood on the roof for natural ventilation. This design cools the stairs at no cost when weather conditions permit and captures the heat inside during the winter.

The building is heated by an ultra-high 94% efficient gas-fired condensing boiler and cooled with a high efficiency air-cooled modular chiller with peak power consumption at 1.212 KW/Ton.

The David Brower Center
Peter Rumsey, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, Integral Group, Oakland, CA, receives first place in the new commercial buildings category for The David Brower Center, Berkeley, CA. The project was developed by Equity Community Builders.

The Center serves as a home for many environmental and social action organizations and combines offices and program facilities. Using the latest in energy-efficient technologies and design as well as 53 percent recycled building materials, the project makes the lowest possible impact on the environment, taking into account the true life-cycle cost of building construction, operation and maintenance.

The building uses some 60 percent less energy than the average U.S. building of similar use, before taking credit for the energy production of the onsite 25 KW PV system. Energy efficiency gains are provided by an innovative combination of HVAC and whole building design strategies and technologies, including an in-slab radiant heating and cooling system; a mechanical nighttime purge system that captures cooler summer night air, flushing the building and charging the high thermal mass; a high efficiency condensing boiler selected to operate at a lower supply water temperature; pumps with variable speed drives; ground floor spaces served by high efficiency water source heat pump systems; evaporative cooling; natural ventilation; and displacement ventilation.

The building’s water saving features include waterless urinals (a landmark milestone: the first installation of these for the City of Berkeley); a rainwater catchment system that provides water for flushing toilets and irrigation; and low-flow fixtures.

The building features low energy and low carbon output mechanical systems and low water-use plumbing systems. It could achieve 70% to 80% lower carbon emissions per person than the current baseline due to well-designed MEP systems, efficient use of building space and a conscientious concrete specification.

“ASHRAE Technology Awards are awarded for innovative HVAC&R designs that provide superior energy saving, cost effectiveness, enhanced indoor air/environmental quality, and excellent performance through application of new design concepts, new technologies or by applying existing technologies with innovative approaches,” Wei Sun, chair of the judging panel, said. “Panel judges looked far beyond a good design or a high profile project, they confirmed that all judging criteria were well addressed and looked for the application of new technologies and innovative concepts. Winners challenged themselves to work outside their comfort zones.”