UC Berkeley: Jacobs Hall

UC Berkeley's Energy Use Policy, part of the EMI, played an important role in embedding energy efficiency across campus, including at Jacobs Hall. The Policy applies energy efficiency to campus life and affects all departments by formalizing such measures as acceptable room temperature setpoints and "outlawing" of single pass cooling systems and constant volume fume hoods. From a design and construction standpoint, the Policy also requires that all future capital projects include dedicated building utility metering to tie back into campus energy dashboards as well as consultation with the Energy Office during project planning so that these projects at a minimum will use 30% less energy than California Building Code (Title 24), with a goal for a "no net increase" in energy use.

The following energy efficiency measures were implemented at Jacobs Hall:

• RENEWABLE ENERGY: A 74 kW photovoltaic array provides ~60 percent of the building’s energy requirement. Adjacent Soda Hall steps up to the south away from the site, affording excellent solar access.
• HIGH-PERFORMANCE ENVELOPE: A highly insulated envelope – with exterior insulation, rain screen cladding, and integrated sun-shading on three exposures – manages external building loads. ENERGY STAR®-rated cool roofing and high-albedo paving help to further reduce cooling loads in warm weather.
• DAYLIGHT: The narrow building floorplate presents a shaded façade to the south for optimum daylight harvesting. Large north-facing windows and interior glazing help to reduce internal glare. One-hundred percent of instructional spaces above the basement and 85 percent of all regularly occupied spaces have views to the outdoors and are sufficiently day-lit to allow lights to be off during daylight hours. The lighting power density of the building is 0.8 watts per sq. ft.
• PASSIVE VENTILATION: All public, teaching, and office spaces (except the basement) are designed to rely primarily on daylight and natural ventilation from operable windows. The building opens to the prevailing winds, allowing 100 percent of instructional spaces above the basement level and 85 percent of all regularly occupied spaces to be naturally ventilated. Mechanical ventilation provides added fresh air when windows are closed, providing 30 percent additional outside air above code requirements or when deemed necessary from active carbon dioxide CO2 sensors located throughout the building.
• EFFICIENT HEATING & COOLING: Comfort during warm seasons is supplemented with ceiling fans, and on extremely hot days with mechanical “bump cooling,” through the use of a purposefully undersized cooling coil in the air-handling unit. Heating is provided primarily by highly efficient hydronic radiators, which may be supplemented when needed from the mechanical supply air system.
• ORIENTATION: The building is oriented on an east-west axis for optimal solar benefit. This creates a wind-protected, sunny courtyard to the south while enhancing building access to passive solar heating, daylighting, natural ventilation, and a continuum of indoor/outdoor spaces on the first floor.
• COMPACT MASS: A compact building mass with an efficient skin-to-floor area ratio helps to reduce thermal transfer. A narrow, 55-foot-deep floorplate and 14-foot ceilings promote excellent natural ventilation and daylight penetration.
• BUILDING WATER USE: Ultra-low flow fixtures reduce building potable water consumption by 50 percent.
• LANDSCAPE WATER USE: Drought-tolerant landscaping, sub-surface drip irrigation systems, and advanced, weather-based irrigation controllers combine to reduce landscape water use by 50 percent from baseline. The small size of the site’s landscaped area makes efficient use of available land while further reducing water consumption for landscaping. The landscaping and Incense Cedars preserve habitat for native birds and other species.