Uncovering Barriers and Benefits of Net-Zero Schools

This study was conducted with the involvement and collaboration of High-Performance Environments Lab (HiPE) at University of Oregon and Energy Trust of Oregon. I served as the graduate research assistant of Dr. Ihab Elzeyadi, founder and director of the HiPE lab. This project was funded by the Energy Trust of Oregon (26K).
The goal of this research was to offer owners and design teams evidence-based data that looks
at benefits beyond saving energy to support decision-making when developing net-zero schools. This research inform various stakeholders, school districts and economic analysts about the key barriers and advantages to planning K-12 building design. This project was conducted in three phases: In phase I, we collected data from design teams, school districts, and web resources on recent net-zero schools in the US using a detailed building performance and measurement protocol. In Phase II, we followed-up with a detailed survey with the design teams, school district representatives, and non-profit organizations engaged in net-zero schools and those who completed non-net-zero schools in the Pacific Northwest recently. In phase III, we analyzed the data for a sample of exemplary schools with direct implication to the state of Oregon climate and building practices. This led to seven detailed case studies of exemplary net-zero schools to develop best practice patterns and cases of their successful design, delivery, and performance verifica-tion. The finding of this study was presented at the Energy Trust of Oregon Lecture and Training Series in Portland, OR. (https://tinyurl.com/2hhasr45)