Constant 70 degree temperatures, cone-shaped lights and common areas complete with bamboo dance floors will greet students living in Dartmouth's new eco-friendly residence halls.
The College plans to use these along with many other materials and features such as spray foam insulation to help conserve energy in the Mclaughlin and Tuck Mall residence halls, which are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2006, according to Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman.
"We are using renewable resources wherever possible in the buildings," Redman said.
To meet their eco-friendly goals, the College has tried to use recycled, renewable and durable materials for many parts of the buildings, leading to plans for bamboo floors, copper roofs and carpets made out of recycled materials.
"Even little details like where the tiling is coming from, and is it made of recycled materials, even in the glazing, are all being considered to meet sustainability requirements," director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels said.
The new buildings will also feature a sophisticated water-based radiant heating system. PVC pipes in the buildings' concrete floors will circulate hot water, creating a heating system based on the principle of hot air rising and causing the entire room to be evenly heated, according to Eckels.
"When you wake up in the morning in bare feet it will be great," Eckels said.
Another feature of the new residence halls will be a "tempered" drain system that conserves energy by wrapping pipes of cold shower water around hot drainage water pipes.
"You are taking hot water that is being wasted, and using it as a preheat for cold water, so you don't have to use as much energy to get the water from 40 degrees to 60 degrees," Redman said. "We are doing that kind of stuff in the buildings wherever we can."
The Tuck Mall site will also feature 1500 foot deep geothermal wells that supply water for the heating system. This heating system will extract heat from the cold ground water two degrees at a time to reduce the amount of energy used to heat the building.
The temperature in the new buildings will be kept constant at 70 degrees. As it approaches nightfall and it gets colder, the sensors located on the outside of the buildings will gradually warm the building to keep the temperature even.
"You wont feel like sometimes you are too hot and sometimes you are too cold -- its always going to be pretty much the same temperature," Eckels said.
The lighting in the rooms will be provided by wall mounted four-foot long cone-shaped lights that use low wattage bulbs and an indirect lighting technique.
"It delivers a higher quality and better lighting," Redman said.
The advanced lighting system will also feature sensors that will automatically turn off lights in a room upon sensing that the room has been empty for a given amount of time. The lights will turn on every time someone enters the room until they are manually switched off.
As another energy-saving measure, the new buildings are layered with spray foam insulation that provides a vapor barrier and insulation. This type of insulation provides more insulation for the same thickness than the insulation in the current buildings.
"You can think of what the building is surrounded in as an envelope. The higher the quality of the envelope, the more efficient the building is." Eckels said.
"When you take the extra steps to build a better envelope all of the equipment you buy drops down a size. Instead of buying a 100-ton air conditioner you buy a 60-ton air conditioner," he added.
Dartmouth is also considering purchasing "green power," or sustainable energy, for the new buildings. The buildings would not receive the green power directly, but instead the College would purchase the amount of green power equivalent to the proportion the new buildings use and feed it into the entire campus.
The College is also keeping an extensive record of what gets trashed.
"Basically our goal is that 90 percent of things that come off the building sites must be recycled," Eckels said.
Eckels said that part of the College's motivation for the movement toward sustainablity is its hopes to receive a silver ranking from the Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design Green Building Rating System. The rating system offers points for each aspect of sustainability and then awards plaques and certificates to recognize leadership in the green building sector. By installing bike racks in the new clusters, for instance, Dartmouth can receive a sustainability credit for their support of alternative transportation.
Eckels acknowledged that the eco-friendly features will have a high up-front cost, but he said that the energy-efficiency of the new buildings will save money in the future.
"Since we built [the buildings] to last over 100 years, there is a lot of payback to be had because we were willing to spend a little bit more now," Eckels said.
