Design uses a river water/variable refrigerant heat exchanger to heat and cool the building.
Recently a team from Montana State University (MSU) won first place in an international competition run by the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). The winning team shows the power of “women in engineering” as four of the five members were female MSU students.
For the competition ASHRAE challenged university teams to redesign, renovate and retrofit a selected building. These retrofits had to integrate renewable energy and power saving systems into the design.
MSU’s team decided on a Brooklyn building near the East River. The river allowed them to design a closed-loop river water/variable refrigerant heat exchanger into the building. This exchanger will be able to heat and cool the building.
MSU assistant professor and team co-advisor Kevin Amende said, “It’s really a testament to their work ethic on this project, and to their ability to think outside the box … That’s the whole idea behind working this into a two-semester sequence that combines engineering and architecture. There are problems that can’t just be solved with a mechanical engineering approach, or through architectural thinking alone, you need a multidisciplinary approach.”
Results of the system shows its efficient use of renewable energy.
The specifications of the building shows that this refrigerant flow system would increase the energy efficiency of the structure. Other systems added to the design also helped to increase the efficiency. These systems include a green roof, sound-damping, and solar heating systems.
In total, the cooling load of the building was reduced by 40% while the yearly energy consumption dropped from over 1 million kwh to 330 thousand kwh! This reduction of energy use would pay back the renovation costs in 12 years. Meanwhile, the total savings would amount to over a million dollars over the life of the building.
For proof of concept, the team looked at a local high school which used a similar variable refrigerant system. However, “The system we chose … wasn’t even in the (textbook) … It was great to learn about a trending engineering solution,” said teammate and architectural grad student Theresa Lindenau.
MSU Engineering and Architecture students: Theresa Lindenau, Martin Reaves, Terra Moran, Mary Peterson and Elyse Casper
The team consisted of engineering students Terra Moran, Mary Peterson and Martin Reaves; architecture grad students Theresa Lindenau and Elyse Casper; and was co-advised by professor Ralph Johnson.
First prize was $2000 and a trip for one of the team members to accept the award at the 2015 ASHRAE Winter Meeting. Second place went to Tianjin University (China) and third place went to the University of Georgia.
For a more detailed explanation of how the MSU students designed the renovation watch this video:
Source Montana State University