North Street Primary School Upgrade Proposal - Essay Example

North Street Primary School Upgrade Proposal Building a green structure is one of the most dominant features of the modern architecture. However, old structures can be modified to consume less energy as compared to that of the similar structures. The most common problem that has influenced the structures is the utility of natural light. Common commercial or school buildings are such made to restrict the natural lights from penetrating into the building. The utilization of artificial lights in the presence of natural light makes the structure to be less friendly to the environment and thus contribute in emitting green house emissions and harm the structure economically by increasing the energy bill for the structure. North Street Junior School is facing the similar problem thus it need few amendments to cure the problems related to the green house emission and the energy consumption. The school utilizes the artificial lights to enlighten the inner building and utilize maintain the temperature by utilizing the electricity. All the class rooms have radiators that help maintain the temperature during all seasons. In general, the building of the school is an old patterned building that utilize immense amount of energy for all the systems. In my view, the building was such made to restrict the outer air from being penetrating into the building but due to the lack of technology, it also restricted the natural lights from penetrating into the building that is the major reason for it higher energy consumption. On the other hand the utilization of the fossil fuel and electricity based temperature controlled system also consumes a major portion of the electrical energy increasing the amount of carbon footprints. At some place lack of insulation permits the inner atmosphere to diffuse into the outer environment making the temperature control unit to work more than required. The School is surrounded by smaller building, thus allow a lot of light to be faced by the building (Cayless, & Marsden, 1997, p45-122). The immense amount of light may serve as to enlighten the building and to provide warm water and air to be circulated into the school. However, the dominant feature of the building is that the building is a symbol of cultural heritage and it should be touched little but implementing effective alteration in the building to consume lower energy units and reduce the green house gas emissions. Thus, the solar water heaters should be placed over the roofs of the building to capture the solar energy and heat the water and then circulate the heated water into the building. The structure is an attraction for its architecture and limits the renovation and thus it can be considered the biggest disadvantage of the building to make it green. The site of the school can be utilized to implement the energy saving tactics. The ground can also help is maintaining the temperature inside the building through the process of geothermal heating (Level, n.d). In geothermal process, water circulating pipes are buried into the ground about 4 to 10 feet under the surface. As, the temperature inside the surface remains constant to 18-25 degrees on the Celsius scale, the circulated water through the ground attains the similar temperature and thus can be utilized to maintain the temperature inside the building by circulating the water. In general conditions, the thermal energy is provided by electrical energy or burning natural gas or oil, which is responsible for the increase in the carbon foot prints (Burberry, 1997, p17-73). The better way, is to utilize the alternate sources instead of conventional resources of energy. However solar heating is considered to give better results, more warn and less humid air. On the other hand, electric or gas heaters consume a huge amount of resource and emit a large proportion carbon dioxide. Better insulation on the roofs may prevent the heat loss into the outer environment. As the structure faces west, natural ventilation should be allowed in summer to reduce the energy dependency. The three sites namely site A (Near Playground), site B (Near Field) and site C (In the building of the school) have certain advantage and disadvantage. As, site C is an enclosed site limiting the natural lights to be penetrated into the site C, thus the site C can be said to be major energy consumer. Site B and site A face the sun and thus no artificial lights are required to enlighten the sites. Thus, it the major advantage of the site. However, the three sites can play an important role in making the school building to be more energy efficient. As, we can see that the Site A and B can maintain the natural lights in for the school, thus opening windows to these sites will reduce the energy consumed in artificial lights. If there is a doubt that making larger windows will damage the building heritage, smaller windows should be utilized. In case that the utilization of smaller windows will also impact the architecture of the building, optic fibers should be utilized to enlighten the room. Optic fibers fit pass through smaller hole and can be utilized in the day to fulfill lightening requirements. As discussed above, the site A and B are the best locations to harness the geothermal energy. On the other hand, the roof of the building can be utilized to harness the solar thermal energy. At some places optic fibers should be placed under the sun and the other ends should be placed into the rooms to reduce the requirement of the artificial lights. At site C, it is better to utilize the solar photovoltaic arrays but arrays may spoil the beauty of the architecture. On the other hand, the school building was made with renewable materials like wood stone and clay. The architectural value of the structure can never be neglected. The dominant feature of the building is the west facing of the school that can be utilized to reduce the carbon footprints in summer (McMullan, 2007, p13-114). Bibliography Burberry, P. 1997. Environmental Services. (8th ed), Mitchell's Building Construction. Harlow: Longman Cayless, M.A & Marsden, A.M. 1997. Lamps and Lighting. (4th ed). London: Arnold. McMullan, R. 2007. Environmental Science in Building, (6th ed). Basingstoke: Palgravev. Level. n.d. Space Heating. [Online] Available at: < http://www.level.org.nz/energy/space-heating/> [Accessed 24 October 2012] Read More