Smith

Smith Middle School

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools highlighted "energy efficiency design and conservation techniques" as important criteria for the selection of architectural firms in October of 1997. The establishment of this objective led to the design and construction of the Smith Middle School, completed in August 2001.

Daylighting strategies have been incorporated throughout the school facility, including academic classrooms, specialty classrooms, media center, cafeteria, gymnasium, and student commons areas. The inclusion of natural daylighting produces significant energy savings, reductions in maintenance and increases in productivity of students and staff. The primary daylighting system consists of “monitors” on the roof that allow natural daylight to penetrate the building in a controlled fashion. The monitors consist of vertical windows leading to a triangular space with vertical light baffles that control and distribute the daylight evenly around the room.

Generally, the roof monitor windows face south to take advantage of the higher lighting levels. In certain rooms, such as cafeteria and student commons areas, the monitors face north to take advantage of different light “colors”.

To augment the amount of light reaching the monitors, a light-colored roofing membrane was selected. A secondary daylighting system for those classrooms with south-facing windows consists of anodized aluminum light shelves that “fill in” lighting along the sides of the rooms. The daylighting monitor is an educational tool and physical example of sustainability.

Rainwater is collected from the roof areas of the building and stored in underground tanks. The harvested rainwater provides water for flushing toilets and irrigation of one of the athletic fields. The system significantly reduces the rainwater run-off from the site, while also reducing the need for domestic water from the local utility.

The solar water pre-heating system is designed to utilize the sun’s energy to pre-heat the domestic water prior to its final heating for cleaning and food preparation use. This pre-heating of the water reduces the conventional fuel usage of the school. The panels are located on the daylighting roof monitors above the cafeteria due to its orientation to the sun and its proximity to the main mechanical room.

The rainwater collection system begins at the roof. Standard roof drains and leaders lead to an underslab network of pipes, converging at the underground tanks located below an exterior plaza. The underground storage consists of six 13,000-gallon precast concrete tanks. Two submersible pumps are used to transfer the rainwater to the building and to the irrigation pump house.

At the building, the rainwater is filtered and chlorinated. The treated water is then pumped to the toilets and urinals for flushing only. The water is non-potable and is not used for cleaning, drinking, or food preparation. Through the use of an exhibit at the exterior plaza, the rainwater collection system is an educational tool as a demonstration in sustainability.

The photovoltaic system (PV) is incorporated into the covered canopy at the bus drop-off area. A 48-volt cell array was installed to produce electricity to run the exterior lighting at the bus canopy. The electricity created by the PV panels is transferred to storage batteries located in the main electrical room. When the lights are needed, the energy in the batteries is converted and supplies electricity to the lighting fixtures.