King LEED 3 Energy & Atmosphere

Reducing energy consumption conserves resources,

saves money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Conscious Design
PG&E Presents Check to the libraryPG&E presents a big check to the Library

King Library was designed in 1999-2000 and exceeded the energy standards in effect at that time.

  • Designed to be 32% below Title 24
  • Designed to LEED New Construction Silver standards
  • Earned a PG&E Savings by Design award - $250,000

At left, library officials accept the $250,000 check from PG&E in 2004.

Monitoring Based Commissioning
Cartoon Image of Two Doctors examining a houseRunning a MBCx project is like taking the building to a doctor for a checkup

After the building had been open for a few years, it was consuming more energy than had been predicted in the Title 24 calculations.

It was time to run a Monitoring Based Commissioning (MBCx) project

MBCx project steps:

  • Install test equipment
  • Run tests
  • Compare to expected results
  • Correct out of range
  • Retest
  • Set procedures in place to keep equipment running within desired ranges

Numerous issues were documented and steps were undertaken to correct them.

Premium Pumps and Motors / VAV

Variable Air Volume Box EquipmentVariable Air Volume (VAV) box

As public entities who plan to own each building that they build for its entire lifespan, as opposed to a commercial, leased building which may see many tenants over its productive life, both the City and SJSU take a long-term view of all construction and equipment investments.

The design for the mechanical system of King Library incorporated this strategy.

  • Better quality equipment
  • Lasts longer
  • More efficient
  • Lower total cost of ownership

Lighting Projects

Large Room with New Stack Lights in King LibraryRetrofitted lights in book stacks (background) are much whiter than original lights (top).

Lights are responsible for a large proportion of the energy consumed in a library.

All 50 fixture types were analyzed for:

  • efficiency
  • maintenance issues
  • value of potential energy savings vs cost of a retrofit

The three most common fixture types were identified as having the greatest retrofit potential and were retrofitted in 2009 using the following strategies:

  • Changed lenses for better light transmission
  • 5000K (whiter) color temperature light for better visual acuity
  • Reduced fixture wattage
  • Occupancy sensors on book stacks which reduced the number of hours the lights are on by up to 80%

The 2009 retrofit project resulted in an overall reduction in electricity consumption for the building of over 25%.

Controls
Lighting Controls Software ScreenshotLighting control zones allow scheduling of lights as needed

An issue identified by the MBCx project was lighting controls that were not working correctly.

  • Lights near the windows had been designed to be off when it was light outside but were staying on during the day.
  • Some lights were staying on all night.

After the MBCx project:

  • Timeclocks back under control
  • 5% reduction in electricity consumption in addition to the savings from the lighting retrofit.

LEED Credit Categories