Going Green: Sustainable designs
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This 98-year-old building has a new lease on life while setting a new standard for sustainable design and providing a high quality workspace. At the same time, the ecological rehab of the building is also saving money.
“In Manlius we had about 12,000 square feet and our energy bill for electric and gas was about $48,000 a year. Here we are heating and cooling with our building and one tenant about 32,500. There's about 18 or so that's just raw warehouse so there's not a lot of energy spent there so we're spending about $37,000 a year so for about two and a half times the building we're enjoying a 40 percent reduction in the cost of energy,” said Peter King, CEO/Managing Partner, King and King Architects.
King and King Architects CEO Peter King said they've accomplished this without delving into any exotic technology. For example, they increased the reflectivity of indoor surfaces. The reflectivity of the standard floor is 20%.
“If we bump that up to 40 which is what we have here plus the floor we're standing on has a 70 percent light reflective value, 85 on the walls and 90 on the ceilings which is what we have in this building then every bit of daylight that comes through the windows like this one to my left reflects off of that material and can be used to see the work that we're doing,” said King.
They also added windows which means employees have a view outdoors as well as providing light. They also use natural convection to heat the building.
“There is no rocket science in that system. The diffusers that you can see from here are low at the floor. They have very low velocity so very low fan power is needed to push the air through it and then you let that natural current, convection of the air, as it heats it rises and is exhausted out the ceiling and there's no special equipment,” said King.
About Going Green:
Going Green is produced in cooperation with the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Learn more about SUNY ESF by visiting their website, esf.edu.