KEC Passive Design

•

General Guidelines to Consider for Passive Design include:
Site conditions and solar orientation play a major role in siting a location.  Consider the following:
  – Natural vegetation
  – Water run-off
  – Seasonal water tables
  – Solar orientation has a major effect on comfort and energy use
**note the image above was from an Australian website so for US, replace "north" with "south"

•Room layout should take into account how and when rooms will be used and how this impacts:
  – Natural daylighting opportunities
  – Natural ventilation opportunities
  – Passive solar heating
  – Sun shading, vegetative shading

•Orient the structure so south wall faces within 30 degrees of true south
  - In rooms on S side, windows should equal 8-12% of floor area
  - Shade S windows from summer sun
  - Use casement windows on walls facing prevailing winds to scoop air for natural ventilation
  - Locate rooms to take advantage of natural light and heat based on time of use

Use stormwater management such as peremeter drains, gutters, subsurface drains to address rainfall and groundwater

Glazing

  - Keep in mind more glass equals less lighting
  - South facing windows should have high solar heat gain to allow light in
  - East and West windows should have low-gain to reject summer sun
  - North windows should have lowest U-value


One of the primary goals of the KEC is to be a Net Zero Energy facility.  All the energy used in a year must also be produced onsite.  The energy source for the KEC is its PV array.  Since the up front cost of PV is fairly expensive, the goal in designing the facility is to make it as efficient as possible.  Therefore Passive Design techniques were used to reduce the energy consumption and up front PV costs.

The KEC implemented the following Passive Strategies:
  - Building siting to optimize southern exposure
  - High performance envelop - R44 walls and roof assemblies achieved with spray insulation and SIPS panels
  - Shading with vegetation and sunshade to reject summer sun
  - Natural ventilation with operable vents on the lower window units and on upper clerestories to draw air movement through the space as well as Earth Duct to pre-condition fresh outside air
  - Thermal bridging - all exterior walls are double framed with an air space between framing