Vermont architectural firm Maclay Architects received top honors for the net-zero energy design of the Putney School field house in the new construction (small building) category at Efficiency Vermont's 2010 Better Buildings by Design Conference.

Vermont architectural firm Maclay Architects received top honors for the net-zero energy design of The Putney School field house in the new construction (small buildings) category at Efficiency Vermont’s 2010 Better Buildings by Design Conference. The 16,800 square foot field house will produce as much energy as it uses over the course of a year thanks to an on-site solar photovoltaic system—making it the nation’s first net-zero energy secondary school building and Vermont’s first commercial net-zero energy building.

“There are only a handful of net-zero energy buildings in the nation,” says Bill Maclay, president and founder of Maclay Architects. “Our hope is that this will be among the first of many such buildings. This will show the world that our buildings can—and should—be built to meet much stronger energy standards to not only protect the environment but also to improve an organization’s bottom line.”

A number of energy efficiency measures, including a super-insulated building envelope, reduces the building’s energy use by more than half that allowed by Vermont’s current energy efficiency code. The building will use the sun for its heating (including passive solar) and electricity needs. Sixteen sun-tracking photovoltaic solar panels will power the building and, in an average year, will enable the building to do better than break even on its energy use. During the winter months the building will draw electricity from the grid. During sunny months, the photovoltaic cells will feed excess energy back into the grid. In addition to paying no energy bill, The Putney School will receive 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity fed back (net-metered) into the grid.

“The building is not only a shining example of sustainable architecture, and not only a beautiful space, but it is a wonderful testament to the power of collaboration…As a result the building feels like Putney, and it feels like it is taking Putney to a new level,” said Emily Jones, director of The Putney School.

In addition to being the first net-zero energy secondary school building in the nation, the design team anticipates that The Putney School field house will be one of only five platinum (the highest possible rating) LEED-certified school buildings in the country. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the nationally-accepted standard and rating system for high performance (green) buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Putney School, a college preparatory boarding high school in southern Vermont, will have real-time energy monitoring data available to the public on their website soon. (See http://www.putneyfieldhouse.org/energy_use.html for more information.) Of the $6 million field house building project budget, $5.1 million was spent on building construction.

In addition to Maclay Architects, the project team for The Putney School field house included: Engineering Ventures, Kohler & Lewis, Heindel & Noyes Inc., DEW Corporation, Cynthia Knauf Landscape Design, Energy Balance, Naomi Miller Lighting Design and William Bissell.

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