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Gilbane Building Company was contracted byOsceola County Schools to construct Florida’s first net-zero K-12 school.  Net-zero means that the school was designedto return as much energy to the power grid as it uses each year.  The three story 44,820 square foot buildingis targets an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) rate of 20 compared to the 65-75 EUIof a traditional building.  NeoCityopened its doors in August of 2019 and cost $13.3 million to build.

Some interesting facts about the school include:

The campus holds up to 500 students

650 solar panels make up the roof top area

The school was designed to use 75% less energy than a regular school whichequates to an estimated $115,000 in energy savings per year

A food cantina truck to reduce operational costs

Air purification technology, enhanced lighting, including naturaldaylighting, collaboration laboratories and break-out spaces

1. 6.

With NeoCity, Energy Air, Inc. embraced the challenge of venturing intonew HVAC territory.  Being Florida’sfirst net-zero school, and EAI’s first project of this type, challenges startedfrom the beginning.  For starters, thisproject did not house the typical HVAC system. There was a combination of condenser water, chilled water and hot watersystems that not usually combined together. In addition, there was a very elaborate control system designed to takeadvantage of high efficiency heat pumps, outside air units, Solar and LEDlighting.

Energy Air was proud to be a part of the team that created the firstnet-zero designed school in Florida.  Allof the parties involved work together to make history and hopefully create a blueprintfor similar designs going forward not only for schools but for many structuresin years to come.