MEarth at Hilton Bialek Habitat Leed Certified Classrooms.
This beautiful facility on 10 acres next door to Carmel Middle School provides educational opportunities for children throughout the district and beyond. The building is sited southward for passive solar gain in the winter. The roof is predominately a planted green roof with a "butterfly" rainwater collection area, and solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal that have also been tied together as a second rainwater collection vehicle. Behind the classroom, GSL has volunteered our services with Assistant Director Jason Sharrett to plan, design, procure, and install the 4,500 gallon rainwater collection system. This system will be tied into the roof irrigation system to water the green roof in the summer. Filtration to the RWH system is provided by two Leaf Eater Advanced units combined with First Flush units. Flexible PVC is used between the wall and the tanks and between tanks to allow for movement. Internally the tanks have calming inlets, the center tank a submersible pump combined with a floating extractor to further filter water to the pump. Overflow water from the inlet tanks is used passively in a bioswale near by, planted with native vegetation. For further information on the wonderful programs provided at this facility please click on the following link. http://www.carmelhabitat.org/ Update 4/25/2014. GSL installed a fourth 1,500 gallons cistern to bring total capacity to 6,000 gallons. It is expected this will suffice all irrigation requirements for the green roof through out the dry season! Thanks to Cal-Am for funding the fourth tank and GSL for donating labor to install.
