4.3 kW Energy Positive Portable Classroom

Greentech Renewables teamed up with Anderson Anderson Architecture to make this award-winning design a reality. Designed in San Francisco, factory-built in Oregon by Blazer Industries, and installed in Ewa Beach Hawaii, this factory-built energy-positive portable classroom provides a high-performance and healthy educational environment. The classroom minimizes energy use through careful daylighting and natural ventilation, employing photovoltaic panels to generate substantially more power than consumed. The classroom also serves as an educational tool with natural forces and systems. The life-cycle cost is projected to be lower than previous-generation energy-consuming portables.

One in four students in Hawaii currently studies in poor-quality portable classrooms. The state plans to replace 10,000 units over the next ten years. This modular, off-site fabricated, relocatable classroom prototype was commissioned by the Hawaii Department of Education as a new model to replace the state’s current inventory of aging, poor quality and energy-inefficient portables. The project was competitively awarded to a design-build team based on highly detailed performance analysis modeling and thirty-year life cycle cost analyses. The building systems include extensive environmental monitoring systems broadcast to the web. A state-funded scientific team is evaluating the building performance through a two-year study. Based on scientific results and post-occupancy evaluation, the building will be revised as required for future units to be placed in numerous highly varied climate ecosystems throughout the state. The easily relocatable building system is designed with flexibility and options for classroom comfort and energy efficiency in various climate conditions. Relocatable classrooms are a major presence in Hawaii's education planning.

The portable classroom is designed to provide an optimized educational environment for students and teachers while advancing sustainable design principles in construction and classroom learning. The classroom is designed to conserve as well as collect and generate natural resources, including electrical energy, daylight, wind energy, and rainwater. As well as being strong, efficient, and conserving, natural forces and resources are highlighted and exposed throughout the structure, and all systems and performance criteria are monitored and broadcast to the web. The building acts as a learning tool for occupants, other schools, and the general public. The combination of maximized photovoltaic surface matched with low energy consumption creates a positive net energy production that is four times the building’s annual consumption.

Photo credits: Anthony Vizzari