Marc, today's charrette was terrific. Thank you for your truly generous collaboration. You've caused me to turn a mental corner. Until recently, I thought that that to do really intelligent buildings, we'd need the right clients, the right engineers, and a premium budget. Thanks to you, I now believe that to do intelligent buildings all we need is INTELLIGENCE!—and the guts to ask the simple questions until we get the answers, and the courage of our convictions to persuade others...

We can do this and it will change things. You've empowered us. Thanks. –Ellen

Bement School Dormitory

Architect: Margo Jones Architect  Engineer: John Penney Comsulting Engineers

Bement School is a private school in Deerfield, MA serving students in grades K-9. Fitting in with Historic Deerfield was a key element in the design of what will ultimately be two identical buildings each housing 20 students and four faculty apartments. Working in the integrated design process, Energysmiths modeled energy use and analyzed multiple mechanical system approaches. The superinsulated building has R-40 walls, R-60 roof, R-20 slab-on-grade, triple glazed windows, and airtight construction. Energysmiths made mutliple site visits to test air tightness with a blower door and theatrical fog, leading to a final air tightness of 0.08 CFM50/sf of shell. Heating and cooling is provided by four 3 ton air source minisplit heat pumps. Ventilation is provided by three enthalpy recovery ventilators. Hot water is solar thermal (240 sf array) with electric resistance back-up. Over 8 kW of solar electric panels will offset an estimated 20% of the annual load. Meters are in place to track the energy used by the heat pumps, the hot water system, and the plug and lighting loads. Low impact, durable materials were used throughout, including maple flooring from trees harvested on site. Occupied February 2010. First year energy usage was 6 kWh/sf/year for all energy.