Our Campus

Every single classroom has windows that open and ceiling fans! That means that during mild weather, you can get fresh air without turning on the heating system. And it means that you can be comfortable without air-conditioning for more months of the year. Fans create a cooling effect as the breeze passes over our skin that can make us feel up to 10°F cooler.

Stratification means that the air in our spaces settles into layers based on temperature. Cold air is denser, so it sinks down to the floor, while warmer, lighter air rises to the ceiling. When the heat is on, the fans can push the heat down closer to where you are.

What about when the windows are closed? Our campus has a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) - which means that fresh air is delivered to you all day long, and stale air is exhausted out. Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) grab the heat from the stale air on its way out and transfer it to the fresh air that comes in. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) sensors respond to the number of people breathing in a space. They will turn the ERV fans up when there are a lot of people in the space, or turn them down when the fresh air is not needed.

There are 72 photovoltaic panels (PVs) on campus, that produce approximately 22.18 kW (22,180 watts) of power per year. Fourteen 300-watt panels are mounted on the canopy in front of the Giddens entry; fifty-eight 310-watt panels are on top of the Roof.

The PV panels used on this campus are made of solar cells sandwiched in between sheets of glass. Solar cells are made of silicon crystals. Solar cells convert the energy from sunlight into electrical energy, which is direct current (DC). Batteries use DC power, but the power that we use in our building is alternating current (AC). Each PV panel has a microinverter that converts the power from DC to AC so it can be used in the building.

Extra power that isn’t used on campus is fed back into the electrical grid and sold to the utility company.

Look up - the little holes you see in the steel ceiling are in front of an acoustically absorptive material that dampens sound. On the floor, there is a thin cushion under the flooring that absorbs sound before it heads to the level below. Walls between classrooms are made of steel studs with gypsum wallboard (GWB) on each side, which are smooth, dense panels that block sound. Inside the GWB is batt insulation, another material that helps absorb sound. At some classroom doors, rubber seals close up all the gaps that can let sound slip out into the hallway. A quieter classroom means that you can hear your teachers and each other.

Bioretention planters slow down the rate at which water is absorbed and sent into the storm system, allowing pollutants and sediment to settle out and filtering the water through the plants’ root system. Cleaner water helps our waterways and our salmon. Pervious concrete has gaps between the stone aggregate that allows water to pass through it, allowing the water to get filtered through the earth before it reaches the storm system.

On the wall, you might see a wall unit that provides heat (and cool) to your classroom. All of these units are connected to heat pumps that are outside the building, near the parking area. Heat pumps have a Coefficient of Performance of about 3, which means that for every unit of energy that is put into them, 3 units of heat are produced. They work by grabbing heat or coolth from the outdoor air and exchanging it with cooler or warmer air in the building.

In the winter, the flow of heat and cool from a heat pump follows the diagram below; in the summer, the diagram is reversed.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) exist in many building materials that can have an adverse effect on your health - such as paint strippers and cleaners. The paint that was used on the interior walls of the campus has zero VOCs.

VOCs are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air.

VOCs include both human-made and naturally occurring chemical compounds. Most scents or odors are of VOCs. VOCs play an important role in communication between plants, and messages from plants to animals. Some VOCs are dangerous to human health or cause harm to the environment. Harmful VOCs have compounding long-term health effects. (source: Wikipedia)

Bio-based materials are materials that their origin in plants. Most of the flooring on campus is linoleum, an 89% bio-based material that is made primarily of linseed oil, which comes from the flax plant seeds, gum rosin from pine trees, recycled wood waste of wood from controlled forests, limestone and jute from the jute plant which is used for the backing. (source: Marmoleum)

Some floor finishes require regular waxing to keep up appearances. Your campus uses nontoxic cleaning formulas and has floor materials - such as polished concrete - that don’t require waxing.

If you look up, you might see a series of steel trusses. A truss is a structural element that acts like a beam - but instead of one solid material, a series of light-weight members are joined together in a series of triangles. When a beam is loaded (that is, when you put weight on top of a beam) the beam has to be strong enough that it will not deflect (bend) under load. With a truss, the lightweight members can also act to brace each other and to distribute the load, so that the truss is stiffer (less liable to bend) using less material.

Before there was a school on this parcel of land, there was a bowling alley called Imperial Lanes. The old timbers that make up the reception desk at the Library and the school entries come from the timber trusses that held up the curved roof of the bowling alley.

There are a number of steel brace frames that are visible throughout the building. Seattle is in an area of high seismic activity, meaning we are susceptible to earthquakes. The brace frames are very strong and stiff, and they allow the building to resist the lateral (side-to-side) shaking that is typical of earthquake tremors.

Good lighting - whether from the sun or from electric lights - is important to our health and ability to learn. The lighting used on campus uses bulbs that contain light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs emit light when electrical current passes through them. LEDs are long-lasting, emit very little heat and are “directional” (they emit light in a specific direction), unlike incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) light sources, which emit light and heat in all directions. That means LEDs are able to use light and energy much more efficiently.

You may notice that many of the light fixtures in your classrooms are off, such as the pendant (ceiling-hung) fixture to the right. That’s because daylight sensors sense when daylight is bright enough in the classroom, and they dim the lights as much as needed. Rooms and spaces were designed with daylight in mind, with tall windows and light-colored ceilings to reflect light.

The more daylight we can use, the more energy we save and the more we can enjoy the benefits of daylight that we’re biologically attuned to, such as the shift in color temperature from warm (sunrise) to cool (blue sky, overcast sky) to warm (sunset).

When you’re trying to save energy, you need to look at all the energy uses in a building. Besides lighting and mechanical systems, the things that we plug in can use up lots of power, even when they are off or idle. According to research done by the Lawrence Berkeley Labs in 2019, an average desktop computer draws about 21 watts when it is in sleep mode, and 3 watts when it is off. These ‘vampire’ or ‘phantom’ loads can add up.

That’s where controlled receptacles (wall plugs) come in. Many of the plugs you see in the wall are labeled ‘controlled.’ That means that items you plug into them will be shut off when the building systems are shut off - so don’t plug the fish tank into the controlled receptacles, but only into the unmarked ones!