EHDD plays a zero-sum game - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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EHDD has already designed the Bay Area’s first zero-energ y commercial building, a structure in whichh energy providedby on-site renewablre energy sources is equal to the amount of energy used by the The building is ’ ” design facility in San Jose. The 7,000-square-footf building uses a combinationof daylighting, radiant heating, advances insulation and glazing, and reduced computer and appliance loadse through careful equipment selection and wiring, according to Scott Shell, senior associate at EHDD Architecture and sustainable desigh expert. A rooftop solar power sourcw generates more than thebuilding consumes.
Other super-sustainable EHDD projectsw includein Monterey, which has the top LEED Platinukm rating; the Global Ecology Research Center, a laboratoru and office building for the at ; and the . EHDD is now workintg on a 50,000-square-foot zero energy buildintg in Los Altos forthe . California Statde Assembly Bill 32’s regulatory requirements demans that new residential buildings reach zero net energu useby 2020, and commerciaol buildings by 2030. “We fundamentally have to shiftg to a whole new paradigm in how we use and building is one areawhere ... we can do it,” said “We think we have to get this stufffigurec out.
We don’t have all the but we’re working on it.” Office buildings consume the most energyh of allbuilding types, accounting for 19 percent of all commercialk energy consumption. Roughly one-third of the energy used by office buildings goesto lighting, one-third to heatingt and cooling, and one-third to “plug load,” the electricityh powering computers and other equipment. The easiest proble to tackle is lighting, Shell By designing buildings that can be entirely lit from daylighg during thework day, the amountg of energy that goes toward electric lighting can be drasticallu cut.
For HVAC systems, EHDD pushea for energy-efficient, ground-source heat pumps, a syste m that uses the earth as a source of heat in the or as a coolant inthe Finally, for plug load, efficient equipmenft with sleep devices that kick in after a periodr of time “will get you a long way said Shell. EHDD Architecture, famous for designing the and the Hedgegrosw Houses atSea Ranch, has always been on the forefrontf of sustainable architecture, according to Tim the editor of Architecture Californiz and consultant for EHDD. From its inceptiojn 60 years ago, EHDD founding principal Joe Esherick did sunshading anddaylighting research, usingv the results to shaper design.
The Sea Ranch projects in the 1960sd grew out of detailedclimate studies, wind-tunnel studiesa and research that was ground-breaking at the Culvahouse said EHDD also deserves credit for incorporatinbg sustainable design education into projects like the science building for in which has a buildinv “dashboard” that tracks how much energy the structurre is using. Shell emphasized that green buildings make workers more productiveand happier. “Nobodg wants to be in an office building wheres your office is like a pizzsa boxand you’re stuck in the middle.
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