Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2017

67 / 202

| |
MOUNT PLEASANT TOWN HALL
that the new, 92,000-square-foot, three-story building use
“the same amount of energy that was used before,” Herin
explained, adding that “we needed to solve some energy
problems without creating comfort problems.”
That certainly was a challenge but one SMHa attacked
head on.
“The new Town Hall has a high-efficiency building
envelope, which offers exterior insulation and a weather
barrier,” Herin pointed out.
Using passive design strategies, the building also
features thermally broken windows and exterior shading
that help keep the heat out. The key to this type of design
is to take advantage of the local climate and the path of the
sun – East to West – Herin explained.
“It’s designed so that it doesn’t get a lot of direct sun
during the warmest times of the year,” Herin said. “This
helps the building to more easily cool down when it’s
warm and warm up when it’s cold.”
There are also LED lights throughout, automated
heating/cooling and vacancy sensors installed in most
of the rooms. The sensors save energy by automatically
turning lights off when rooms are unoccupied.
Knight explained that lights will not automatically
turn on when someone enters a room, but sensors can be
preset to turn the lights out after the room is empty for a
certain amount of time.
“You have to physically turn on the light when
entering, but the system senses when you’ve been out of
the room long enough,” Knight said. “The sensors use
sound, motion and heat to detect whether a person is in
the space or not. Even if someone is asleep, the system
senses that you’re there.”
After reviewing various design options, a decision was
made by the town for the new Town Hall to be Energy
Star certified, a program of the Environmental Protection
Agency that recognizes superior energy efficiency. The EPA
provides tools and resources to measure energy use, with
a grade of 75 percent out of 100 percent necessary for
Energy Star certification.
“Our target for the new Town Hall was 85 percent.
There are benchmarks that had to be met to get that label,
and we won’t know until everything has been turned on for a
while if we did it,” Herin pointed out in June 2017, as town
employees were preparing to move into their new home.
To save time and maintain efficiency, one unique feature
of the new Town Hall is its notification system. When a
certain area of the building is not meeting performance
standards, Knight said, “an alert is sent by text or email from
the system itself to let us know there’s a problem.”
“Whatever the problem is, it’s dealt with more quickly.
The point is to keep the building functioning as it was
designed and to not let it get out of tune,” Herin added.
The building also features CO2 sensors in the high-
occupancy areas. None of the windows open, but the air is
constantly monitored to ensure comfort and quality.
“The system is designed to use whatever source takes the
least amount of energy,” Uyak said. “When people aren’t in
the building, less ventilation is needed. When it’s occupied,
the ventilation that brings in outside air is back on.”
At night, once town employees have left for the day,
certain sections of the building are not completely shut
down but are “set back,” Uyak said.
“It would take too much energy to bring the building
back to a comfortable level if you shut it down completely
each night. But when people aren’t in the building, the
ventilation is reduced,” he explained.
As Mount Pleasant’s new Town Hall approached
completion, demand from consumers and government
incentives were making it easier and more financially
feasible to go green. The new Town Hall did not miss
out on the wave of eco-friendliness. It’s not only energy-
efficient and comfortable but also provides an atmosphere
conducive to working, learning and serving the residents of
Mount Pleasant. TH
The building’s thermally
broken windows and
exterior shading take
advantage of the east-to-
west path of the sun.
Photo by Brian Sherman.