COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC TRAINING CENTER, Fort Collins, Colorado

The CSU Academic Training Facility is a $4 million, 16,151 square foot campus building pursuing a LEED-NC Gold rating. Ambient Energy has performed a sustainable design charrette, DOE2 energy modeling and life-cycle cost analysis, utility incentive calculation, daylight simulation, and LEED facilitation for the project. The Training Facility is projected to save 26.7% in energy costs and 40% in water savings.

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER, KETCHUM HALL RENOVATION, Boulder, Colorado

The University of Colorado at Boulder is performing a 58,000 square foot renovation of Ketchum Hall, an historic office and classroom building. The building renovation is substantial and is designed to meet the LEED for New Construction Gold rating standard. Sustainable attributes include water efficient plumbing fixtures, optimization of the building envelope and systems, reuse of existing building materials, use of recycled materials, and efficient lighting systems. Ambient Energy performed energy modeling, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, hygrothermal analysis, green materials analysis, a sustainable design charrette, and LEED consulting.

• Energy Modeling demonstrated that displacement ventilation was the most cost effective HVAC solution for this project. The modeling tested the effects of energy efficiency measures and predicts the building will have an Energy Use Index (EUI) of 47.4 kBTU/sf/yr and an 18% reduction in annual energy costs compared to a baseline minimally compliant with the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Energy Standard.
• Hydrothermal Analysis was used to understand the ramifications of moisture transport and condensation once the new insulation is installed into the interior of the existing walls. This analysis helped the client select the type and location of the vapor barrier to prevent condensation on building materials.
• CFD analysis was performed to evaluate the air flow and buoyancy properties of the displacement ventilation HVAC system proposed from energy modeling results. The CFD results verified the validity of displacement ventilation and the thermal comfort performance for a typical classroom using temperature and velocity contours.

VALOR CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL, ATHLETICS, ACADEMICS AND AQUATICS BUILDINGS, Littleton, CO

DOE2 energy modeling during design development to inform design decisions based on annual energy cost and at the end of construction documents for LEED compliance. Energy efficiency strategies analyzed include direct evaporative cooling, high performance windows, roof insulation, daylighting controls, higher efficiency lighting, heat recovery, and high efficiency boilers.