Award-winning building earns energy honor

  • Published
  • By Amy Rollins
  • Skywrighter staff
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The Advanced Power and Thermal Research Laboratory in Bldg. 23, Area B at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Interagency Energy Management Task Force as one of 13 federal projects worldwide for a 2014 Federal Energy and Water Management Award.

The award recognizes individuals, groups and agencies for their outstanding contributions in the areas of energy efficiency, water conservation and the use of advanced and renewable energy technologies at federal facilities. The awards will be presented to the winners at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., which will be scheduled for later this year.

This is not the building's first award.

The laboratory, in a 1934 building once used for structural and mechanical testing, was transformed in 2012 into a state-of-the-art facility where the physics of warfighters' power and thermal systems are explored. The building itself garnered a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified status - the first LEED Gold building on the base.
Bldg. 23, the former Static Test Laboratory, had lain largely unused as a laboratory environment for many years. Through a $21 million fiscal 2010 military construction effort, AFRL teamed up with Messer Construction Co., the 88th Air Base Wing Civil Engineer Directorate and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Louisville District to transform the structure into a modern lab facility. Bldg. 23's original facades were retained as a brick "skin" covering the 53,000-square-foot, three-story structure.

The building was refurbished with sustainable design and environmental considerations in mind, meeting the criteria for a LEED Gold certification in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council's rating system and complying with the Energy Independence and Security Act.

According to Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon Inc., which provided civil, structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical design for Bldg. 23, mechanical systems in the building were designed with energy savings and environmental concerns in mind. Annual water consumption is projected to be 75,467 gallons per year versus the base case annual water consumption of 137,493 gallons per year representing a savings of 45.1 percent. The design achieved energy use reductions through more efficient heating/cooling, windows, lighting and environmental sensors. These energy savings represent a total cost savings of $141,450. Some of the specialized spaces within the building include two "clean" rooms and a dry room designed to maintain a relative humidity of 1 percent.