One of the reasons the Triangle document is unique is that it includes local examples of good projects. We are fortunate to have many of these local examples, but not everybody knows about them. By pulling them together, we've created a document that will be very valuable to architects, engineers, builders, and other professionals. One of the examples highlighted in the guidelines is ice storage to reduce energy use. Cherry Huffman Architects incorporated this technology in the design of Wakefield High School and the Wake County Social Services Center.
Ice is manufactured and stored during the night and used during the day for cooling the building.
This shifts electricity use to off-peak times and allows the use of smaller chiller equipment. The specific measures in the guidelines are not designed to be mandatory. Instead, they are designed to be used where appropriate on a project by project basis. Each specific measure includes a point value to enable approximate calculation of how well goals of the high performance provisions have been met on a project. Although exact comparisons between projects are not appropriate due to the unique characteristics of every project, the point system provides a framework for discussion of continuous improvement and for on-going professional training.