The Inside of Green

Natural wood, stone floors, low-e windows are all the glitzy aspects of green.  But what about the inner workings of a LEED certified building, the things that contribute daily to energy and costs saving?  It may not be as pretty, but the operating systems are very important to true sustainability.

TCC entrance

We were given a chance to tour the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus (formerly Radio Shack), a LEED Silver project.  While the entrance and foyer are quite impressive, we were able to see how it all works in a behind-the- scenes tour.  The campus is made up of almost 1 million square feet and was purchased by TCC for $260 million.  Radio Shack's headquarters continues to occupy one of the three buildings.  The college has done a good job of adapting the space to their needs, but it is easy to see by all the luxury finish out that this is not your ordinary community college campus.

 
 The chiller system was the main focus of our tour and was cutting edge technology when it was installed.  The premise of the system is to run cooled water through out the building under the raised floor (see right).  The air is dispensed through the floor with the intake near the ceiling.  The system is run on an automated system running only when necessary. The air is constantly monitored for temperature and CO2 levels to maintain the right temperature and air quality. 

We started by visiting one of the many air handlers.  Each air handler handles the cooling for half of its floor and the floor above it.  The handlers move the air through dense filters dramatically improving the air quality.  The pipes in the back are heavily insulated to help reduce heat transfer, a characteristic of the entire system.  We then headed to the basement where the air chiller is housed.  There were two things immediately noticeable when entering the mechanic room - the loud noise and how clean and comfortable it was.  This is not the hot and steamy "boiler room" you see in the cartoons.  Instead, it was climate controlled and very clean.  The water travels into the chiller where it is cooled to about 42 degrees and then sent out through insulated pipes.  The building primarily uses body heat to heat the building, with no formal heating system.  The entire system is powered by a computer "brain" that checks the system regularly and alerts the maintenance team when there is a problem.  They also have consultants that help electronically when the problem is more complex.  In addition to the energy saving (about 50%) this has also saved them in staffing costs.

A building's major energy use is through its HVAC system and this building has dramatically reduced its carbon footprint through upgrading their system to a sustainable system.  While the TCC campus also has many of the more visible aspects of sustainable building in place, it is important to note that often the most important and effective aspects of a green building are hidden deep within the building.