Johnson Controls has inked an agreement to improve critical equipment, systems and infrastructure in Jones County School District’s three high schools in Ellisville in an effort to transform the environment, operation and energy efficiency of the facilities. The schools include Northeast Jones High, South Jones High and West Jones High, and the school district will leverage the guaranteed energy savings to fund the improvements. About $300,364 in savings is expected for the first year and more than $4.2 million in savings, over the life of the 12-year project.

“Jones County School District’s top priority is providing its students with the best education and learning environment possible,” said Brad Mason, account executive of Johnson Controls, in a statement. “Through this partnership, we’re pleased to help the district further this mission and enable improvements for years to come, and having a local, established partner like Howard Industries makes this project even more important to the county’s economy.”

The company’s Performance Infrastructure leaders and school district leaders partnered to assess and prioritize improvements including upgrading existing lighting with custom LED solutions, provided by Howard Industries, and replacing outdated energy management control systems.

Johnson Controls Infrastructure Projects Enabled by ESPC

The Jones County School District projects are enabled by a $2.79 million energy savings performance contract (ESPC) with Johnson Controls. Over the past three decades, Johnson Controls has implemented more than 3,000 ESPC projects across the nation. The company estimates that the combined utility savings on behalf of its clients is in the billions. This approach to implementing such projects helps publicly funded entities make capital improvements over protracted payback periods. The long-term benefits of this and similar arrangements are improved facility efficiency, occupant comfort, financial management and environmental protection. Moreover, energy usage data will be reported to the Mississippi Development Authority’s Energy and Natural Resources Division on a semi-annual basis.

“Johnson Controls’ ability to provide systems integration, implementation, maintenance and training, and to stay within our projected budget was the big factor in the district and the board’s decision to embark on this project,” said Tommy Parker, Jones County School District superintendent, in a statement. “This will be an asset not only to our teachers and staff, but also, more importantly, to our students; and the fact that Johnson Controls was able to partner with Howard Industries right here in Ellisville makes this project even more special.”

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Passivhaus technology came about when Professors Bo Adamson of Sweden and Wolfgang Feist of Germany reviewed the U.S. building methods of the 1970s and saw energy efficiency could be achieved in simpler ways.

“What Passivhaus technology is, is basically a building-physics methodology for modeling the energy performance of buildings very accurately and fairly easily,” said Adam Cohen, co-founder of Structures Design Build and a certified Passivhaus planner in North America and Europe.

Passivhaus primarily consists of high levels of insulation and air-tightness in the fabric used in buildings, according to Building Research Establishment.

In CEED’s first year, the 3,503-square-foot building consumed 10,050 kilowatt-hours of energy — 5.9 percent more efficient than predicted when the building opened in November 2010. A typical code building of its size would have consumed 33,852 kilowatt-hours of energy.

“We knew Passivhaus technology would deliver on results, but it’s always gratifying to get a year’s worth of data to see how accurate the predictions turn out,” Cohen said. “It’s clear this relatively new technology is here to stay.”

CEED was designed as a demonstration school to show students and future developers Passivhaus’ impact on design when it comes to sustainability and cost-saving results.

“The idea is that the CEED building will be a central piece of the teaching in this county,” Cohen said. “The other piece of this that’s really cool is that the teachers are going to take all the lesson plans from the CEED and put it on the Web for any teacher, anywhere in the world to access. They can use the real-time data of the building, in terms of energy saved and water conserved, in their lessons.”

Spreading the Word

Although the U.S. has only a little more than 100 buildings with Passivhaus technology, the method has been internationally praise and is now recognized as a green building standard in Europe. More than 30,000 residential, educational and commercial buildings there use Passivhaus.

“A few years after these buildings are being built and they start performing, people look at it and go, oh, golly maybe those things really do work,” Cohen said. “We’re starting to get data back and see that yes, we are seeing 70 percent energy savings, then what happens in almost every country is you have this tremendous growth in interest and implementation of Passivhaus. People can’t get enough of it after they realize that it actually works.”

Energy-Efficient Installations

Passivhaus supports energy-efficient installations, Cohen said, but usually at a smaller scale that results in higher energy savings and lower installation costs than typical energy-efficient buildings have.
“Typically, on most of the Passivhaus projects — at the very least we’re using is a passive geothermal loop,” Cohen said. “The geothermal loop consists of a geothermal pipe buried underground that uses natural ground air instead of a typical heat pump.”

Passivhaus leads to high indoor air quality, low energy use and, in most cases, energy savings of 70 percent more than a standard building method.

The idea is spreading in the U.S. to more than just CEED. Cohen is also in the process of completing the Malcolm Rosenberg Hillel at Virginia Tech.

The Rosenberg Hillel is set to open in the spring or summer of 2012 and will host activities, classes and prayer.

“Pretty much every building that I’ve done so far I’ve had to introduce people to the idea and convince them that it’s a good idea,” Cohen said. “But I feel like that’s changing because people are starting to get the idea and I’m starting to get calls from people around the country who are doing larger projects and I’m consulting on those.”

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