Design goal

The main building design goal is demonstrating the energy efficiency. The active participation and leadership of the building wanted to achieve the energy usage goal of 28 kBtu/sf-yr in the early time, while compared to national EUI average level 93 kBtu/sf-yr, the goal seems to be very aggressive. After three years in the building, the results have exceeded initial goal beyond our imagination. The energy cost savings are significant.

Integrated High Performance Building Design

The employees significantly benefit from the energy use of the building. The integrated design process operated well and the systems includes—day lighting, efficient lighting technologies, high performance windows, geothermal, thermal mass, photovoltaic panels, and water filtering--have performed as modeled. The main reason for exceeding energy goal is the behavior of staff, who followed and supported the rules for minimizing energy consumption.

Every decision in this design—from envelope to materials to controls—was applied to this goal in mind. The building demonstrates a “net-zero” conception. Above all, When building IUB/OCA, the architecture and designers do not merely build that thing in isolation also connect the environment around it from city scale- Neighborhood Scale-building scale, to let the whole area becomes more coherent; and then focus on the building exist and operate.

Sensors and tools used throughout the building collect energy data which is sent to the Iowa Department of Administrative Services and shared with the IUB-OCA. Data include building relative humidity and air temperature, geothermal system flows and temperatures, solar energy generation, and building electric demand. Therefore, the results are used to compile energy performance metrics letting people to know energy use and to verify goals.