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Florida
State University Kirby W. Kemper Off-Grid Zero Emissions
Building/Tallahassee, Florida
Prime Consultant
TLC Engineering for Architecture
Architect
Gilchrist Ross Crowe Architects/Tallahassee, Florida
Owner
Florida Board of Governors/Tallahassee, Florida
Size/Cost
900 sf/$200,000
TLC Services
MEP/FP/LEED Consulting/Energy Modeling/Commissioning
Registered
for LEED NC 2.2 Designed to Achieve Platinum
As
the home of the Sustainable Energy Science and Engineering
Center, the Florida State University’s Kirby W. Kemper
Off-Grid Zero Emissions Building is real-world testing
ground for the Center’s emerging technologies. At
a mere 900-sf, the building features a comfortable living
space with full kitchen and bathroom, cozy living room
and two bedrooms. The structure has two offices that can
be locked off from the interior living space, each with
a separate exterior entrance. The plan is to have graduate
or foreign exchange students living in the house for a
semester or a year at a time to get a true test of technology
installed in the building.Only recycled or otherwise eco-friendly
materials were used in the construction. The decking and
interior walls, for example, came from Florida State’s
former Center for Professional Development and the wood
for the roof beams inside the house was salvaged from
a demolished barn. Even the concrete for the foundation
contains recycled ash. The building envelope consists
of structural insulated panels that are thermally efficient.
Natural light filters down from large windows near the
roof line. The windows feature light shelves that maximize
natural light and minimize the need for artificial light.
The building is conditioned by a high-efficiency closed-loop
ground-source heat pump system. Ventilation air is provided
through a fixed-plate energy recovery ventilator. Through
the use of low-flow fixtures, the building uses 50% less
water than a home with conventional fixtures. The water
heater is supplemented by a rooftop solar collector. On
the roof, a 7-kW photo voltaic array converts solar energy
into usable electricity. The power from the photo voltaic
panels produces hydrogen through the use of a highly efficient
water electrolysis device that is currently under development
by the Center. The hydrogen is then burned in a generator
to provide all of the electrical power. The standard gas
water heater was converted to burn hydrogen so no natural
gas is needed. Even the kitchen range has been converted
to burn hydrogen. |
