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The J. Craig Venture Institute

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Introduction
The J. Craig Venture Institute is a support, research, and nonprofit organization with over 400 staff and scientists dedicated to microbial, human, environmental, and plant research. It also explores ethical and social issues with the aim of obtaining alternative energy solutions to curb the increased demand for energy. The design of this building has incorporated numerous environmental philosophies that promote environmental conservation and sustainability. Much emphasis was placed on energy generation and preservation, environmental systems, water conservation, and material resource. To promote extensive research practices, dry and wet services were incorporated in the laboratories thus enhancing its flexibility to the …show more content…

All the power used in the building is generated from the windmill and photovoltaic sources. The roofing of the building comprises of a 27 kW array with three types of solar panels. To ensure zero interruption of electrical energy to the facility, a hybrid backup battery system has been incorporated.
The amount of electrical energy generated from the PV array exceeds the demand in the building. This helps offset the energy demand for the building while winter months as much energy is used in heating the rooms. To ensure low energy consumption levels, various innovative power-saving measures have been adopted. For instance, all office electrical panels go off automatically at night. Additionally, ecological plug systems have been incorporated in the laboratory to aid the laboratory users to disconnect nonessential equipment.
To enhance high levels of functionality, manual overdrives have been installed in all power systems. For instance, occupancy and daylight sensors have the ability to detect the need for artificial lighting. The incorporation of variable brightness setting help ensures that the amount of light provided in the room is neither below nor exceeds the required amount. Most of the freezers are situated in a single room to reduce energy losses during cooling. Water cooled systems are used instead of air-cooling equipment as it consumes low amounts of energy.
Moreover, the building envelope and massing are designed to reduce the

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