Van Boerum & Frank Associates, Inc. - Lava Ridge Intermediate School

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Lava Ridge Intermediate School

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Santa Clara, Utah

Lava Ridge Intermediate School is located in Santa Clara, Utah, a community west of St. George. The town is experiencing the population boom that is sweeping the southwest corner of Utah. Washington County School District has the task of building schools to keep up with the increasing numbers of school children and providing facilities to accommodate the kids as they progress from kindergarten to high school.

Lava Ridge is an intermediate school housing grades 7 and 8. It has 120,000 sq. ft. and was built using tilt up construction. The school has a gymnasium, locker rooms, band and choral rooms, theater, computer labs, cafeteria, administrative areas and of course, classrooms.

One of the unique features of the school is its heating and air conditioning system (HVAC), designed by VBFA. The school is heated and cooled with a

state-of-the-art ground coupled, geothermal heat pump system. The geothermal system utilizes energy efficient heat pumps to provide heating and cooling to the classrooms. A heat pump extracts heat from a source and rejects it to a heat sink.

The geothermal system uses the ground as both the heat source and the heat sink. Heat is extracted from the ground in the winter and is transferred to the building. In summer, heat is extracted from the building and is released into the ground. The heat is transferred in and out of the ground through water circulated in underground piping. The underground "heat exchanger" consists of 150 vertical bore holes drilled 300 feet into the ground. One pipe loop is dropped into each bore hole. Each bore hole is backfilled with a thermally efficient grout called bentonite clay. This high efficiency grout improves the heat transfer characteristics. The entire ground heat exchanger is located out of sight beneath the grassy playground.

VBFA was instrumental in achieving Washington County School District's goal for a high energy-efficient school. Designed by Van Boerum & Frank, the geothermal system uses only electricity in an energy efficient manner. Natural gas was only used for heating the domestic hot water. Computer analysis showed that the school should see a 50% savings in cooling energy and a 20% savings in heating energy when compared to a gas fired/DX cooled system.