Berlin Library

The new Berlin Library was designed to be an extremely high energy efficiency building.  Gipe Associates designed state of the art heating and cooling systems that produced a building that nearly achieves net zero! The entire facility is conditioned with a geothermal system that uses the earth as the heat source and heat sink for HVAC equipment. The geothermal units produce 5 to 6 units of energy for every unit of energy consumed. The geothermal well field was conveniently located under the parking lot.   Ventilation is provided by a packaged energy recovery unit that reduces the outside air (ventilation) heating/cooling loads by 75%!   The lighting throughout the facility utilizes LED lighting fixtures which have resulted in further reductions in the electrical load and cooling load due to the lower heat production of the LED type lighting fixtures. Low water consumption plumbing fixture were specified and install to reduce water and sanitary loads by a minimum of 30% when compared to a code compliant building. The entire building is designed to meet the minimum LEED Gold rating requirements and could have possibly obtained a Platinum rating had the Owners decided to formally pursue LEED certification.

Once construction was complete, Gipe Associates was procured to conduct commissioning services.  All HVAC equipment and systems were tested and balanced to ensure that the facility’s heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems were operating as designed.

Gipe Associates had the opportunity to track energy performance at the Berlin Library for the year 2019 and found the building to be operating at $0.55 / sf / year; 14.55 kbtu / sf / year!  11,000 sf / $6.2M

Project Type: Civic,