Low Flow Showers

The Malcolm Athletic Center (MAC) at Harvard University has replaced all of its shower heads with low-flow versions. They use the Delta H20 Kinetic showers, which are rated at 1.6 gallons of water per minute at 80 psi pressure, down 36% from the 2.5 gpm standard in the United States. As a user of the facilities, I can say that the old showers aren't missed.

Fume Hood Ventilation

The Jacobsen Lab in Harvard University's Mallinckrodt Building uses Mott variable volume fume hoods to help save energy by reducing the volume of air being exhausted (and as a result reducing the fresh air brought into the space that needs to be heated or cooled) as the hood sash is closed. The hoods are saving additional energy by having air movement with 80 feet per minute face velocity entering the hood, reduced from the typical 100 fpm or higher in most hoods (the hood was tested and demonstrated safe containment at 60 fpm). To ensure occupant safety, each hood has a digital display indicating the face velocity, with an alarm sounding if it were to go too low and a purge button that allows the occupant to increase volume to 300% of normal if there is a spill. Occupants are educated about the hoods' operations and then provided with large digital displays at the entrance to the lab that indicate total volume of air being exhausted in cubic feet per minute. Lab users know what the volume should be if all hoods are closed and can quickly assess whether a hood was left open and is unnecessarily wasting energy (as Philip Kreycik is doing in the pictures above and below). The newly renovated Jacobsen lab is pursuing a Gold rating from the US Green Building Council's Commercial Interior rating system and has integrated a number of sustainable design elements into the project.

LEED EQ c8.2

Question: I am looking at your site and, if possible, would like to see the dwgs and/or diagrams for EQ c 8.1 & 8.2.

Answer: Here is a very simple example we did for the Half Moon Outfitters job. There is a plan view showing line-of-sight geometries and a section. Hope this helps.

NESEA Presentation

On March 11, 2009, Nathan Gauthier was part of the "Best Practices for a Sustainable Campus" session at the NESEA BuildingEnergy 09 conference. Mark Sternick from Dietz and Co. Architects chaired the session and Ellen Watts from Architerra co-presented with Nathan. Ellen presented the results of a survey of higher ed institutions in the Boston Consortium (using absolutely amazing graphics I might add) . Nathan presented on the efforts to green Harvard University. A copy of his presentation, titled Sustainability at Harvard, can be found here.

GHG Reduction Presentation

Nathan Gauthier presented on "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Planning: From Initial Commitment to Implementation" at Tulane University on Thursday, March 12. The talk was well attended and the group discussed what it means for Tulane to have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. A copy of the presentation can be found here.

Hip Hop Archive Cx

A few weeks ago the Harvard Office for Sustainability and Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations commissioned the newly renovated Hip Hop Archive in Cambridge, MA. The project is part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. These pictures show Kevin Sheehan (FMO) and Kevin Bright (OFS) looking at one of the heat pumps and the associated condensate pump (pouring in a cup of water to make sure it starts up correctly). The project is finishing up the LEED for Commercial Interiors certification process and will be submitted soon. The picture on the bottom should include an outside air duct brought into the heat pump (as shown on the "as-builts"), but it isn't there. We added it to our report.

Holyoke Wind Turbines

Early this year, Harvard Real Estate Services installed 6 of the AeroVironment AVX1000 architectural wind turbines. Each of the parapet mounted turbines is rated for 1 kilowatt and can spin in winds as slow as 4 mph. Last week I took some time after a meeting to take a few pictures and they were spinning rapidly. While in the meeting in the building's 10th (top) floor minutes before taking the pictures, I didn't notice any noise or vibration. The turbines' inverter has not been connected to the internet yet, but when it is we will be able to monitor their effectiveness.

More information can be found here.