Four Winds Alternative and CTE High School

Fort Totten, North Dakota

2017

12,500 sf

Mike Laverdure, Katherine Gerzina, Carlie A. Kemp

Four Winds Alternative and CTE High School is the first net zero school on tribal land in the country. A net zero school is an energy efficient building that produces as much energy as it consumes every year. There are several features that contribute to attaining net zero status including: photovoltaic (solar) panels, a ground-source geothermal heating and cooling system, high-efficiency water-to-air heat pumps, energy recovery system for free heating and cooling, variable-speed fans and pumps to minimize excess energy use, occupancy sensors for demand-based lighting, LED lighting, solar tubes for free lighting, specially insulated walls and roof, and triple pane windows.

Education

Indigenous

Scope:

Architecture Interior Design Net Zero

<strong>Triple pane windows</strong> help insulate the temperature inside the building.

Triple pane windows help insulate the temperature inside the building.

Educational displays explain how all of the systems work as well as a cased wall opening so students can see what an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) looks like.

Working with the community and its Tribal Employment Rights Office, Tribal members were trained how to build with ICFs, creating jobs, teaching skills and keeping money local.

The school was designed to have a low Energy Use Intensity (EUI), to allow for a good rate of return on the Solar Panels and other Net Zero design elements.

The building design is a system, each part of the project symbiotically depends on the rest to function.

The school is equipped with photovoltaic (solar) panels, a ground-source geothermal heating and cooling system, high-efficiency water-to-air heat pumps, energy recovery system, variable-speed fans and pumps.

The building's angled roof creates the optimal angle to draw sunlight through its <strong>solar panels.</strong>

The building's angled roof creates the optimal angle to draw sunlight through its solar panels.

<strong>Photovoltaic (solar) panels</strong> produce free energy from the sun.

Photovoltaic (solar) panels produce free energy from the sun.

<strong>Solar tubes</strong> on the roof provide free lighting.

Solar tubes on the roof provide free lighting.

Inside the school features occupancy sensors for demand-based lighting, LED lighting, and solar tubes for day lighting.