Day one of the Summit (aka conference) was devoted to the CHPS pre-conference workshop. Why do they do a 2 day conference with a “pre-conference day”?
In any case today was mostly good stuff. The order of presenters was modified to accommodate our pathetic airline industry that cannot deal with sub freezing temperatures. Several presenters and a few attendees were delayed.
Here’s an extremely condensed version of what I think was the good stuff.
First, I think we all missed the significance of the new 2009 CHPS design criteria. It’s a major overhaul and we should pay attention to what is new and what is gone. Leadership, Education and Innovation is a new category, for example. Bike racks are now called “human powered transportation”. (to allow for skateboards I think) Buses and credits for them are gone.
Ok, my mind did wander for a few moments, but in those moments, I came up with the a really great idea. Instead of relying on a kiosk for the display of data from PV panels, you know like energy generated, dollars saved, tons of carbon not dumped into the air, etc. Well, a fixed kiosk is “old school”. Even a website is limiting. Why not an application for smart phones. In the iPhone world it’s called an App. There are over 100,000 apps for the iPhone, why not an app to see how the PV panels are doing? Anyone know somebody that can create an iPhone App?
Back to reality…. Lisa Gelfand pointed out the seemingly obvious conclusion that high performance modernizations are far more likely to have a positive impact on the environment than HP new construction. We should make sure that each modernization gets the same “green” attention that a new school gets. She also confirmed that EMS systems are both problematic and critical to the success of a HP school. When asked about this, she mumbled “Seimens” and then went on to tout the virtues of commissioning.
Next up was Rob Samish from Lionakis. His talk confirmed, again, the value of commissioning. Estimated cost for K-12 is $.38 per square ft. with a two year payback. Commissioning may not be as sexy as PV’s, but it’s a lot more cost effective. He also made the point about retro-commissioning existing buildings. If you want to change the world, start there.
The next speaker was from AEC systems in San Francisco. Aaron has used them for energy analysis and maybe they are good but this guy was a lousy speaker. His name was not listed as a presenter and he mumbled, so I didn’t get it but he talked about their process for commissioning from a “pre-functional check list” to the final systems manual which actually seemed pretty cool. It’s close to the Owners Manual that I have felt like, for a long time, was a missing component in the delivery of any high performance facility.
Bill Orr, Exec. Director of CHPS then spoke about the new CHPS High Performance Materials Database. It’s almost ready for prime time and we should use it. (Please note, it is funded in part by the carpet manufacturers blah, blah, blah)
Last up was an energetic young man, Nick Semon from CHPS the Operations Report Card (ORC) group. (Who makes this stuff up?) The goal is to develop a report process for existing schools that Districts can enroll in for a nominal cost, that would identify areas needing improvement and even suggest solutions. It goes online Jan. 2nd and there are too many details to go into here but it’s another method to attempt to address the existing stock of school buildings. Are you getting the recurring theme?
More tomorrow.
Live from Pasadena, it’s Wednesday night.
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