The da Vinci School
10909 Midway Road
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When The da Vinci School designed our new facility, we examined every building material as well as the design features to create a healthy building.The renewable energy features that we have are performing beyond our expectations - it certainly delights us to know that many days we may be generating 80 or 90% of our energy needs from renewables! |
Personal Tours
The da Vinci School will feature personal tours of their LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold preschool and kindergarten facility. Tour-goers will learn how every building material and design feature was evaluated during the design phase to create a healthy building free of toxic materials that could pose any health risk to its young students.
Come to The da Vinci School to learn about solar technology!
Solar 101 presentations this year are at 10:30 am and 2:00 pm. Come learn how home solar power systems work and how much they cost. Then go tour the homes in the area for solar owners’ perspectives.
Come learn “Top Ten Myths of Green Building” and play “Stump the Green Realtor” with First Realtor on the Planet to Earn Green Credential Quadruple Crown!
Dallas’ own Beth Johnson shares fast-paced tips, tales and traps from 14 years as North Texas’ first Realtor specializing in green building. Bring your “Stump the Green Realtor” questions! A must-see if you’re considering buying or selling a new or existing home with green features.
Come see the Winston School Solar Car at The da Vinci School from 10am-4pm!
The Winston School of Dallas has an elite program “Solar Science Academy” (https://www.winstonsolar.com) for Winston students interested in an in-depth, hands-on understanding of STEM – science, technology, engineering, math and alternative energy. Solar Science participants experience building, maintaining, and driving a solar car, participate in solar car races on a closed track and on the open road in a cross-country race, and learn business skills, and team building.
Energy Efficient Camper
Come see how we used our portable solar panel with our energy-efficient camper to travel 12,400 miles from Dallas to Alaska and back without use of a generator. A Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery paired with only 100W of solar panels provided a comfortable environment to explore Anchorage, Denali, Homer Spit, Seward, the Canadian Rockies, and Northern USA.
Renewable energy features
Solar PV
kW 28.8
Installation Date : September 2010
Installer: Installed by SRE/ Gridpoint http://www.gridpoint.com/solar-overview/solar-energy-systems
Funded with a $70,000 Grant from Green Mountain Energy’s Sun Club http://greenmountainenergysunclub.com/
Equipment
SunTech panels
Wind Turbine
kW 3.2
Installation date: September, 2010
Installer: AirVVin
Equipment: Vertical Axis Turbine
Retail Electric Provider
Green Mountain Energy http://www.greenmountain.com/
Green features:
Solar Hot water
Capacity: 120 gallons We have limited requirements for hot water. System probably exceeds needs.
Installation date: August, 2010
Installer: SRE/ Gridpoint
Equipment: EnerWorks http://enerworks.com/
Rain Water Capture
Installation date: June, 2010
Installer: Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Inc. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rainwater-Harvesting-Systems/91498268033
LEED Certified:
GOLD
Passive Solar Design
8 foot overhangs for winter light and summer shade and North-South orientation.
Cool Roof:
White steel, R60 rating in insulation
Electric Vehicle:
Wiring for outlet available once electric vehicles are used by client base.
Low water use landscape:
Native and drought-tolerant plants irrigated by drip lines from rainwater collection system.
CFL or LED lighting:
Yes and T-8 fluorescent
Other:
- Pervious pavement in parking lot
- Cork floors and sealed concrete floors in corridors
- Zero or very low VOC materials throughout
- Lots of natural light and outside views from every room
- Operable windows
- Wood chips on play areas
- Carefully chosen cleaning products
- Drinking water filtered
Host Comments
The da Vinci School is a science-based preschool and kindergarten program that has been in operation since 1987. We have operated with an eye to environmental awareness long before it was popular. When we designed our new facility, we examined every building material as well as the design features to create a healthy building – as free of toxic materials that could pose any health risk to our young students.
In addition, we wanted to play our part in the front end – how many resources does it take to keep this facility operational – as well as how can we use this building as a teaching tool for the students and the community. This plants the seed of sustainability for the future. While there are certainly financial benefits, we felt the message that we convey is more important.
The renewable energy features that we have are performing beyond our expectations. Since we enrolled in Green Mountain Energy’s buyback program, we are able to see that each month we are able to generate more than 100% of our needs on certain days. This was unexpected and certainly delights us to know that many days we may be generating 80 or 90% of our energy needs from renewables! Since we enrolled in this program (May, 2012) we have received some amount of rebate every month.
Where to visit next?
Here is a list of other DFW Solar Tour sites close to here: