July 29, 2015

Energy efficient school wins award

Photo courtesy of Hargis Engineers [enlarge]

The new Valley View Middle School uses less energy than the school it replaced despite being twice the size.

Valley View Middle School in Snohomish won a 2015 national technology award from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

The three-story, 168,000-square-foot school for seventh and eighth graders won in the new educational facilities category. It opened at 14308 Broadway Ave. in September 2012, and is owned by the Snohomish School District.

The project team includes Dykeman, architect; Hargis Engineers, mechanical and electrical engineer; Harmsen & Associates and 2020 Engineers, civil engineer; Coughlin Porter Lundeen, structural engineer; and Cascade Design Collaborative, landscape architect.

The school can house 950 students and 100 staff. It has a performance art center, band and choir rooms, classrooms, athletic fields, two gyms, commons area, library, lecture hall and community spaces designed to be accessible to the public.

Hargis Engineers said ASHRAE gave Valley View the award because its design uses sophisticated HVAC systems to improve air quality and comfort, and innovative approaches that cut annual energy use by over half, compared to the ASHRAE code baseline. The translates into about $101,000 a year in savings.

Green elements include geothermal heating, 90 percent heat recovery, displacement ventilation, natural cooling, radiant heating, rainwater harvesting and advanced lighting and controls.

The school is a replacement for Valley View Middle School, which was built in 1981 on the property.

Hargis said the new school uses less energy than the old one despite being twice the size.

Because of the lower energy costs, the replacement school hosts local events and some of the district's off-hour functions.