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Great Solutions: Technology

Great Solutions: Technology


By By Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief; Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor; Dave Barista, Managing Editor; and Jeff Yoders, Senior Associate Editor | August 11, 2010
This article first appeared in the 200908 issue of BD+C.

Only 20 geothermal boreholes were drilled at the WestJet complex because a majority of the piping was embedded in the building’s structural piles.


19. Hybrid Geothermal Technology

The team at Stantec saved $800,000 in construction costs by embedding geothermal piping into the structural piles at the WestJet office complex in Calgary, Alb., rather than drilling boreholes adjacent to the building site, which is the standard approach. Regular geothermal installation would have required about 200 boreholes, each about four-inches in diameter and 300–350 feet deep, but incorporating geothermal piping into 73 of the building's 105 structural piles before concrete was poured required only 20 additional boreholes to be drilled, each about 350 feet deep. The geothermal system, in concert with the $100 million project's many other sustainable features (rainwater collection, daylighting, recycled materials), should help the property save $200,000 annually on energy costs and earn it a

LEED Gold rating.


20. Kinetic Road Plates Power Purchases

Kinetic road plates installed in a parking lot at the Sainsbury's store in Gloucester, England. Kinetic energy captured as vehicles drive over the plates is channeled back into the store. The plates can produce up to 30 kWh of electrical power every hour, enough to power the store's checkout machines. "Customers can now play a very active role in making their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost," says Alison Austin, Sainsbury's environment manager. The syst

em was invented by Peter Hughes, of Highway Energy Systems, based in Somerset, England.

Graduate student Shawn Shields checks server performance while Dr.
Yogendra Joshi looks on at Georgia Tech’s simulated data center.


21. Cutting the Cooling Load of Data Centers by 15%

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, are using a 1,100-sf simulated data center to develop and evaluate new ways of controlling heat in commercial data centers, one of the fastest-growing building types in the country. The researchers, led by Professor Yogendra Joshi of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, have found ways to cut energy center cooling costs 15% by rearranging servers and space for optimal airflow patterns. Their simulated data center uses several different cooling systems, partitions to change room air volumes, sophisticated thermometers attached directly to a server's motherboard, and both real and simulated airflow sensors to measure the output of fans and other systems. The research is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Consortium for Energy Efficient Thermal Management.

Related Stories

| Dec 27, 2011

State of the data center 2011

Advances in technology, an increased reliance on the Internet and social media as well as an increased focus on energy management initiatives have had a significant impact on the data center world.

| Dec 27, 2011

USGBC’s Center for Green Schools releases Best of Green Schools 2011

Recipient schools and regions from across the nation - from K-12 to higher education - were recognized for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED certified buildings and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.

| Dec 20, 2011

BCA’s Best Practices in New Construction available online

This publicly available document is applicable to most building types and distills the long list of guidelines, and longer list of tasks, into easy-to-navigate activities that represent the ideal commissioning process.

| Dec 16, 2011

Goody Clancy-designed Informatics Building dedicated at Northern Kentucky University

The sustainable building solution, built for approximately $255-sf, features innovative materials and intelligent building systems that align with the mission of integration and collaboration. 

| Dec 14, 2011

Belfer Research Building tops out in New York

Hundreds of construction trades people celebrate reaching the top of concrete structure for facility that will accelerate treatments and cures at world-renowned institution.

| Dec 10, 2011

BIM tools to make your project easier to manage

Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.

| Dec 6, 2011

New office building features largest solar panel system in New Orleans

Woodward Design+Build celebrates grand opening of new green headquarters in Central City.

| Dec 5, 2011

New York and San Francisco receive World Green Building Council's Government Leadership Awards

USGBC commends two U.S. cities for their innovation in green building leadership.

| Dec 5, 2011

Summit Design+Build begins renovation of Chicago’s Esquire Theatre

The 33,000 square foot building will undergo an extensive structural remodel and core & shell build-out changing the building’s use from a movie theater to a high-end retail center.

| Dec 2, 2011

What are you waiting for? BD+C's 2012 40 Under 40 nominations are due Friday, Jan. 20

Nominate a colleague, peer, or even yourself. Applications available here.

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AEC Tech

Lack of organizational readiness is biggest hurdle to artificial intelligence adoption

Managers of companies in the industrial sector, including construction, have bought the hype of artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative technology, but their organizations are not ready to realize its promise, according to research from IFS, a global cloud enterprise software company. An IFS survey of 1,700 senior decision-makers found that 84% of executives anticipate massive organizational benefits from AI. 




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