In Golden, Colorado the west-facing windows of Jim Duffield's office work as the office building's heating and air conditioning system. As the midwinter sun settles over the Rocky Mountian foothills it works as the heat and air sysems of the 222,ooo square foot office building. Even at 5,300 feet the sun through the windows produces enough heat for every worker to be comfortable. The office building even has speakers in the floor that play a "whoosing" sound such as an air conditioner would make, just so the employees do not have to work in silence. Meanwhile, the photovoltaic roof array has been soaking up the sun and producing more natural energy than the building can even use. Only to be interrupted once by a cloud passing over the sun around noon. Mr. Duffield feels like his building is "sort of a wonderland." He also feels that most offices are divorced, in a way from their beautiful surroundings and they need to be opened up. I agree with Mr. Duffield and i would love to work in a building that sounds so comfortable and is so energy smart. I hope that more offices and buildings take this great idea and use it to everyone's advantage.
This sounds like a very efficient system Mr. Duffield has in his office building. I'm sure Duffield payed a lot for these features, but he will begin to earn back the money right away by not having to pay high energy bills. Mr. Duffield's office building should stand as an example of the many "energy smart" options available.
ReplyDeleteThis is an encouraging system Mr. Duffield has running. It sounds expensive but the savings are going to start showing that it was worth it. It would be great if additional buildings start to follow his example.
ReplyDeleteI think it was very smart of Mr. Duffield to take advantage of his surroundings like this! More than likely the expenses were very costly but I'm sure the savings made it worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI think I've heard of this before and I've heard incredible things about it. That is an awesome idea. I like that people are tapping into their surroundings and putting them to good use like this.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Mr. Duffield! He thought of everything. The "whoosing" sound just so the employees would not have to work in silence is pretty cool. I would have never thought of that. I love sunlight and would love working at a place like that.
ReplyDeleteThis is definetly cutting edge and I hope future companies design their buildings this way. It does sound pretty costly, but in the long run I'm sure the company will start to see their savings add up.
ReplyDeleteTechnology today is great, but we need everyone to start doing things like these. Like the video we watched today, if all major corporations did this with almost all their buildings we could be so much more efficient and sustainable then we are today.
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