energy

design

resources

Public Agency Demonstrates

Resource Efficiency Through

Innovative Design

Early in the design of their new Administrative Facility, the board of direc-

tors of the Victor Valley Water District made a commitment to innovation. Not

only did they want their new building to provide a work environment that

would enhance administrative effectiveness, they wanted to construct a facility

that would neither create a new financial liability for the public nor increase the

District’s annual operating budget for its operation.

The resulting Victor Valley Water District Administrative Facility is a sin-

gle-story 16,700-square-foot building which houses the daily operations of the

water district staff, and includes a telemetry room, a community meeting room,

a lunchroom, and a fitness center. The building’s rust color concrete masonry

blends pleasantly with its desert environment. The surrounding drought-toler-

ant landscaping is functional as well as attractive, incorporating many herbs to

showcase functionality combined with water-conserving design.

To achieve their goal of maximum energy efficiency, the traditional design

team of architects, engineers, and landscape designers not only worked closely

as a team to investigate all possible solutions, but also coordinated their efforts

with a number of outside energy professionals. The team set a goal to design a

building shell that required no external energy to heat or cool the interior

spaces. While this somewhat unrealistic goal was not achieved, the resulting

facility has been shown to use about one-third the energy required by a com-

parably sized office built to just meet state energy standards.

A 35-foot high central “water tower” feature, used to relate the building’s

function to its historical context, dominates both the exterior and interior of

the facility. The resulting interior space serves as an entry lobby that features

When describing the building, the

human resources director calls it “a

beautiful building aesthetically.” The

building environment is so attractive

the agency is able to use it as a

recruiting tool—whenever they send

information to out-of-town job appli-

cants, they include pictures of the

facility.

educational water, energy efficiency, and xeriscape landscape displays. Natural

light is admitted to the interior of this structural element through a large sky-

light and a circle of high vertical windows. Interior walls surrounding this cen-

tral area are glazed to encourage the spread of natural light to adjacent spaces.

Smaller skylights in appropriate spaces such as hallways and drafting rooms are

used to provide natural light to other office spaces.

All the exterior walls of the building are constructed of 12-inch-thick solid-

grouted concrete masonry with R-11.5 thermal insulation mounted on the

interior walls. The purpose of such a building envelope is to isolate the build-

ing interior as much as possible from the effects of the extreme outdoor envi-

ronment. The massive building walls create a significant damping effect on the

wide day-night temperature swings experienced during the summer. The mass

delays the transfer of heat through the walls, thus moderating indoor tempera-

tures. Once the desired space temperature is achieved, less energy is required to

maintain conditions in both summer and winter.

The solar gain control strategy is completed by limiting glazing area with-

in the walls to just that needed to provide ample lighting through windows

(about 10 percent of the overall wall area), using low-emissivity insulated glaz-

ing in the small number of recessed punched windows, and by shading all open-

ings on the south and west sides of the building with exterior trellises and shad-

ing devices.

To reduce internal heat gains due to lighting equipment, high-efficiency

lighting systems are employed. These include fluorescent fixtures with T-8

lamps and electronic ballasts in the office areas and metal halide lighting in the

lobby. Dimming daylighting controls and occupancy sensors, to turn off elec-

tric lighting when it is not needed, were installed in all areas.

Because the facility is located in a dry high-desert climate and because the

solar heat gain and lighting loads are minimized, the building can effectively

rely on a highly efficient indirect/direct evaporative cooling unit for space cool-

ing. A 20-ton direct expansion cooling unit is available for backup but is rarely

needed, as the evaporative system meets the cooling load 98 percent of the

operational hours. When heat is required during the cold winters, a hot water

boiler provides hot water to coils located in the exterior VAV boxes.

According to the building operations

manager, the 16,700-square-foot

administrative facility costs no more

to operate than their old 5,000-

square-foot facility. The indirect/

direct evaporative cooling system

alone is attributed with saving about

34 percent of the energy costs per

year. In addition, he thinks the

moister air produced by the system is

more comfortable for the occupants

in the hot, dry climate.

Annual Energy (kWh)

Electric Demand (kW)

Annual Electric Cost ($)

263,000

98,000

108

32

34,245

12,760

Base Case

As-Built