Gymnasium Becomes Solar Air Heating System -- Spaces4Learning

Athletics

Gymnasium Becomes Solar Air Heating System

04/01/16

KSQ Design helped West Patent Elementary use collectible sunshine to heat the school, resulting in a more efficient and economical solution for colder winter months.

When KSQ Design renovated West Patent Elementary in Westchester County, New York, as part of the Bedford Central School District’s 5-year capital improvement plan the team substituted materials to create a solar air heating system. This system saves the District money, reduces energy consumption, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and improves ventilation and indoor air quality.

The school’s 5,300-square-foot gymnasium needed exterior repairs and KSQ’s sustainability focused team knew solar air heating collectors are well suited to large, open spaces such as gymnasiums, and warehouses, which typically have tall expanses of exterior walls with few windows.

Instead of just using the proposed fiber cement siding, the team proposed alternating it with comparably priced perforated metal panels that would help to create the new solar air heating system.

KSQ determined the building’s position to the south and then placed the panels on the exterior to collect both morning sun and afternoon heat in accordance to the existing configuration of the building. The setup provides the school with collectible sunshine, and collects the sun’s energy on a typical sunny winter day from approximately 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; peak school hours.

The panels and fiber cement siding replaced the existing wood clad exterior panels on the upper exterior portion of the building. The perforated metal panels are ducted into the gymnasium ventilation system and existing mechanical fans (wall mounted inside the gymnasium) tie the new ductwork into West Patent’s existing mechanical system.

The system automatically regulates itself seasonally and the new system of dampers installed to direct or bypass solar heat into the building as needed are the system’s only moving part making it very low maintenance.

West Patent Elementary’s new solar air heating system displaces a traditional heating load by 20 to 50 percent and lowers greenhouse gas emissions; making it both a sustainable design decision and the best decision for a school’s bottom line.

www.ksq.design

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

Upcoming Awards, Events & Webinars
Lessons in Resilience: Disaster Recovery in Our Schools

Facility managers play a pivotal role in how well a school weathers and recovers from a crisis. Whether it's a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, or a man-made event, preparation determines resilience.
How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.
University of West Florida Opens New Laboratory Facility

The University of West Florida recently announced that renovation work is complete on a new lab building for its campus in Pensacola, Fla., according to university news. Building 80 will serve as the home to the university’s civil engineering program and the Tyler Chase Norwood Construction Management Program.