Students teach green building to industry representatives

Calendar Icon Apr 07, 2009      Person Bust Icon By Carole Wilbeck | Engineering     RSS Feed  RSS Submit a Story

Avery Schwer, associate professor of construction systems with UNL's College of Engineering, concludes the presentation to a green builders' group by students working on the Zero Net Energy Test House.
Avery Schwer, associate professor of construction systems with UNL's College of Engineering, concludes the presentation to a green builders' group by students working on the Zero Net Energy Test House.
Nebraska Engineering students were the teachers at a March 2009 gathering of the U.S. Green Building Council Nebraska Flatwater Chapter. The students shared lessons learned from their work in building a Zero Net Energy Test House in Omaha.

More than 100 students and faculty have worked on the "ZNETH" project. When finished, the house should earn Leadership in Environmental Design (LEED) platinum status and produce more energy than it uses, said Avery Schwer, associate professor of construction systems in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering’s programs at The Peter Kiewit Institute. Several graduate students will also make this living laboratory their home and continue to study its performance.

Some of the environmentally friendly features include insulated concrete forms, tankless water heater, rooftop wind turbine, electric car plug-in station, and landscaping with native plants. 

Students presenting at the session included Michael Behrens, Rodney Bogh, Joseph Bohunis, Michael Bowman, Andrew Brown, Jason Chevalier, Brandon Clark, Brett Elsasser, Timothy Harm, Alex Nielsen, Joshua Probst, Marc Rood, Cory Shillito, David Smith, John Snyder, Derek Stork, John Tomasek and Jesse Wilke.

To view their presentation, click here. (.ppt) 25MB.


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