- Owner: Nampa School District
- Location: 2824 Powerline Road
- Size: 65,000 Square Feet
- Completion Date: August 2007
- Utilities: Idaho Power Co., Intermountain Gas Co.
The Nampa School District has stepped up as a leader in the construction of high performance schools in Idaho. The District has a long history of building elementary schools based upon a design prototype under constant development by Design West Architects. In 2003 and 2004, the Integrated Design Lab-Boise began working with Nampa School District and Design West Architects in partnership with the Idaho Office of Energy Resources and Idaho Power to continue to evolve school design toward more efficient use of energy. The results are piling up and the District has taken these early successes and built upon them in their latest projects. Their ongoing commitment to improve their building stock, and subsequently the teaching and learning experience, serves as a model for other school districts in Idaho.
The most recent development in the continual prototype improvement process is evidenced by the District’s approval to implement two high performance demonstration classrooms, one north and one south facing, in the new Endeavor Elementary School to be compared against two adjacent standard classrooms. This innovative design approach is proof of Design West and Nampa School District’s commitment to high performance schools.
Energy efficiency strategies incorporated into the high performance classrooms include use of daylight as the primary light source, several envelope improvements, improved lighting design and controllability, and substantially rethinking the approach to space heating, cooling
and ventilating.
The high performance classroom’s Energy Use Index (EUI) is modeled
at approximately 35 kBTU / FT²*YR* as compared to the standard Nampa classrooms at approximately 45 kBTU / FT²*YR and an average school in Idaho at 52.8 kBTU / FT²*YR.**
This demonstration project provides reliable energy data and experiential information generated by over 30 monitoring points per classroom that can be used to better inform the District’s future design decisions. Even before the study was underway, as construction was nearing completion, the school district was so impressed with the daylight in the high performance classrooms that the new design has become part of their new prototype for future classrooms.
The high performance classrooms, as well as certain aspects of the rest of the elementary school, are an innovative model for energy efficiency in Idaho and the US. The study allows for the development of a design pathway toward net-zero energy use in classrooms for the Nampa School District and a model for future school design in Idaho.
Page Notes:
** Based upon USEPA© Target Finder for Idaho
*** Based upon USEPA© @ 5.2 tons of CO2/car•year
**** National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future