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“You know you’re on the right track when your solution for one problem accidentally solves several others.” — Corbet Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) headquarters building is a perfect example of whole-system thinking. The 4,000-square-foot building is 99 percent passively heated even though it lies at 7,100 feet above sea level on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains. The climate can get as cold as –44˚C, and snow and frost can come any month of the year. It is usually sunny, though continuous mid-winter cloud has lasted as long as 39 days. Except for two small woodstoves, the building is entirely heated by the sun. The fact that visitors (we have had tens of thousands) find most surprising is that it was actually cheaper to build such an efficient building—even with 1982–84 technology—than an inefficient one. Efficiency measures such as superinsulation, superwindows, and 92 percent efficient heat-recovering ventilators eliminated the need for the furnace, ducts, fans, pipes, pumps, controls, wires, and fuel-supply apparatus. Even though more expensive windows and insulation were installed, the net capital cost of the heating system was ~$1,100 lower because several other components were eliminated entirely. Piecemeal design traditionally optimizes a building’s thermal insulation against avoided heating-energy costs—but ignores the avoidable capital cost of the heating equipment. Traditional thinking would have value-engineered the superefficient, but expensive, components out. The ~$1,100 capital cost savings from the heating system, plus an additional $6,000 was used to save half the water usage, about 99 percent of the water-heating energy, and 90 percent of the household electricity—for which the bill, if the building were only a house, would be about five dollars a month, before taking credit for its manyfold larger photovoltaic power production. The energy savings repaid all the costs of those efficiency improvements in ten months. With today’s technologies greater energy savings could be achieved for less. Good design solves problems you didn’t even know you had. RMI’s headquarters has the additional benefits of keeping its occupants more alert, happy, and healthy. The natural light, lack of mechanical noise from a furnace, low air temperature but high radiant temperature, ample winter humidity in a high-desert climate, and good indoor air quality all make it a very pleasant place to live and work. |
