Design

 

The building site provides a number of natural benefits and its proximity to residential and other recreational areas of the town improves its chance of long-term success.

 

The building will be built into the southwest side of the hill that presently is the home to the golf club dining area and parking lot.  It will provide a new dining area for the golf club and maintain adequate parking in the same location.  By building it into a side hill, the lower level will be accessible to a lower parking lot and the upper level accessible to an upper parking lot.  This also gives a lot of natural earth insulation to the project and keeps some building costs down because there need not be deep foundations here.  A southern exposure also takes advantage of passive solar gains on sunny days.  The view to the south, east and west from this location provides a beautiful scene of the Big Muddy Valley that is home to Plentywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The building will be designed to take as much advantage of renewable energy sources as possible.  It will be constructed of insulated concrete Styrofoam walls with radiant heat in the walls and floor.  Foil wrap around the entire structure reflects energy back into the structure and maintaining wall temperatures of 65 degrees year around keeps the interior space draft free and comfortable.  The pool will be built of ICF with a radiant floor as well.  This reduces heating costs for the pool and reduces evaporative water and heat loss as well.  The pool will have a retractable automatic track cover to aid in energy conservation. 

 

Energy input will be from three sources: ground source heat pumps, solar panels on the south, and high efficiency gas boilers.  It is expected that most of the space heating and pool heat will come from the ground and solar and that hot water for showers and domestic uses from the high efficiency gas boiler.  However, all three systems will be interconnected to allow the most efficient use of energy depending on the demands of the structure at a particular point in time. 

 

Much of a pool maintenance cost comes from dehumidification of the air around it, chemicals used to disinfect it, and energy used to heat it.  Our pool will use the latest in ozone technology from Europe to reduce chlorination costs.  The ground source air exchange system is also of a European design and this will allow dehumidification of the pool air without the use of a large commercial dehumidifier.  Radiant heated pools are inherently more energy efficient because the heat comes from the bottom causing a thermal layering effect that reduces heat loss.

 

Does this type of construction really work?  Is it possible to have a comfortable truly energy efficient indoor public space?  There is a 27,000 square foot school built in 1999 north of Regina that is operating on less than 10 BTU per sq. ft. summer and winter and has done so consistently since built.  It uses the same technology.  There are over 20 pools designed by our heating engineer that operate very efficiently.  There are three locations in Sheridan County that presently use ground source heat pumps and have been pleased with the return on investment.  Sheridan Electric Coop, Nemont Telephone and one private individual all have seen about a seven year payback with heating costs. reduced over 50%.  We feel that by building properly from the beginning we will be able to have lower long-term maintenance costs.

 

The building site itself is 50 yards from Pioneer Manor, 200 yards from the hospital and nursing home and borders one of the larger residential districts in town.  This makes it easily accessible to the population that it would serve.  It is 500 yards away from the city park that has a summer pool, tennis courts, children’s playground and horseshoe.  It is on the property of the local golf club and only a half mile from the Bolster Dam.  This keeps many of the recreational areas of the town in close proximity to each other.  This proximity assures more use by the present public and provides great opportunity for expansion in the future.  It will be an ideal location to host reunion based activities.

 

This is an ideal building site for this type of structure.