By Lincoln Pearce and Dellan Llewellyn 

Energy recovery is an essential strategy in modern building design, offering a powerful way to enhance energy efficiency by capturing and reusing wasted energy. In high-demand environments, such as laboratories and fabrication areas, significant amounts of energy are often lost through exhaust systems and heating processes. By implementing energy recovery systems, this lost energy can be redirected to support building operations, reducing consumption and operational costs.  

When designing Iowa State University’s new Student Innovation Center (SICTR), we were tasked with finding ways to reduce energy usage despite significant process load energy demands. Home to metals and wood fabrication areas, an engine dynamometer, gaffer’s guild, paint booth, microelectronics and textiles labs, and much more, the SICTR required thoughtful design strategies to meet the university’s energy goals. 

We found one such strategy in the gaffer’s guild, the university’s glass blowing lab. The furnaces used for glass blowing operate almost continuously, shutting down only occasionally for maintenance, and thus creating large amounts of waste heat that is simply exhausted year-round. 

To minimize this loss of energy, two energy recovery coils were mounted in the room’s exhaust duct to allow for year-round sensible energy recovery. One coil serves the energy recovery loop between the supply/exhaust air handler serving the “dirty spaces” on the ground and lower levels, which require once-through air and exhaust. 

Waste heat in the winter provides additional preheating of the outside air supply. In the summer, the overhead VAV air supply requires reheat. This reheat loop was routed through a separate energy recovery coil in the gaffer’s guild exhaust to recover energy for the overhead VAV reheat needs to minimize campus steam draw.  

This innovative solution to saving energy was part of our overall energy-efficient design for the SICTR. Additional strategies included: 

  • Dedicated and decoupled outside air supply with total energy recovery wheel and reheat/dehumidification wheel to serve ventilation loads in clean spaces 
  • Underfloor air supply serving clean spaces decoupled from the DOAS ventilation air supply, allowing the UFAD AHU fans to turn off completely when spaces do not require cooling 
  • High-efficiency, low-power density lighting 
  • Improved and optimized building envelope 

These sustainable solutions helped the project achieve LEED Gold certification and significant efficiency improvements over code minimum requirements and reduce overall campus environmental impacts, setting a benchmark for innovation at ISU and campuses everywhere. 

Read the IMEG case study to learn more about our innovative design of the SICTR.