Harvesting Rainwater From an Arid Future
AJC Architects have thought ahead to a hotter Utah in the sensible ideas incorporated into their Wetland Discovery Point educational building that helps educate Utah schoolchildren about nature.
These are the green ideas in order of importance to sustainable design:
- On-site solar panels for green electricity – to make net zero energy onsite;
- Solar thermal collectors for hot water supply and radiant floor heating;
- Radiant cooling via infloor cold water in the same circuits in summer; (great idea!)
- 10-ft high trombe wall collects passive solar heat;
- Butterfly roof for rainwater collection;
- Rainwater collection used for toilets/landscaping;
- Drought tolerant, native landscaping;
- Maximimum openings for natural ventilation;
- Low-water use fixtures and plumbing;
In addition there are the usual elements that garner so many LEED points:
- 95% of the construction waste is recycled.
- Use of FSC-certified woods and low VOC products.
- High recycled content materials used throughout.
…and indeed, this building has gained LEED Platinum certification, the third to do so in Utah.
It’s a good example of the self-sufficient new design vernacular in sustainable design – including net zero solar power and the new butterfly roofs for rainwater harvesting for a water constrained future.
Because Utah, in the American Southwest, is an arid land and will be increasingly drought-prone as our hotter future heats up the region.
Via Jetson Green
This all looks cool, but I have a feeling it costs. I would like to make a home like that but I’m afraid it will cost more than energy bills through life time. (Even if not, where could a man find that amount of money by once?) Anyway, I like the whole idea of sustainable (independent) home.
looks like a modern adaptation of classic desert Southwest design
What would be really cool is if they used some radiant night sky cooling for their hydronic floor, a la Carnegie Institute for Global Ecology at Stanford.
http://www.cbe.berkeley.edu/mixedmode/carnegie.html
check out the pictures and the HVAC section for explanation. You can thank Peter Rumsey engineers for that one.
You better check the legality of rainwater collection in UT if one is interested in this sort of thing. Colorado – which has similar water rights laws to UT – just legalized rainwater collection this year. Previously, diverting rainwater was against water rights regulations and case law that predated statehood.
Rain water harvesting is still an area that needs true investigation and varies via region in the Southwest. However, there is an existing techonology that reduces your water usage by 30-40% and it is made by Water legacy. The product is a WL55 and it takes your shower water and recylces it to a tank which then filters the shower water to run to you toilet. So Stop Flushing Fresh Water.