Zion National Park Visitor Center: Significant Energy Savings Achieved Through a Whole-Building Design Process

Paul A. Torcellini, Ron Judkoff, and Sheila J. Hayter, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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Abstract

The National Park Service (NPS) applied a whole-building design process developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to create a building that performs more than 70% better than a comparable code-compliant building at no additional construction cost. The NPS was committed to integrating aggressive energy efficiency and renewable energy features into the building design to reduce environmental impact and enhance visitor experience.

This whole-building design process involves a committed design team, including the energy consultant, in the earliest conceptual design phase and continues through building commissioning. The design team for this project included the architect, engineer, energy consultant, landscape architect, owner, operator, and others who could influence the building design and operation. Extensive whole-building energy and lighting computer simulations were conducted throughout the process, which included the integration of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies into the building.

The design team, inspired by natural cooling within the canyon, developed simple solutions to create an extremely energy efficient building. These strategies included natural ventilation cooling, cooltowers for evaporative cooling without distribution fans, daylighting, massive building materials, Trombe walls and direct solar gains for heating, engineered window overhangs for solar load control, a building automation system to maintain comfort and control the energy-efficient lighting system, and a roof-mounted photovoltaic system to offset building electrical loads and ensure a power supply during the frequent utility grid outages.

Performance data were taken over a 2-year period and show where and how energy savings were achieved. Construction and operation costs are also summarized.