St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., is one of the few educational institutions to receive a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum rating for one of its buildings. The college's Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences opened in September 2008 and is expected to reduce energy costs by 50% compared to the Minnesota Energy Code, which is based on ASHRAE 90.1-2004.

Science centers are not by design energy-efficient, due mostly to their high air-exchange requirements. The Regents Hall features an HVAC system designed with an extended-size 53,000 cfm Vision air handling system from McQuay. The system is designed not only for high air exchange, but also for low energy consumption, which helped the college earn LEED points and meet budget requirements.

"We added 190,400 sq ft of technical space, and the base energy model for the building predicted more than 10 million kWh would be consumed annually if designed and constructed just to meet the code level," said Pete Sandberg, assistant vice president for facilities at St. Olaf College. "The aggressive design changed the model to predict 4.2 million kWh, and we actually operated the first 12 months using 2.7 million kWh."

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