The new Residence Hall is a 167,000 sq. ft. 5-story building with a budget of $23M. Environmental Systems Corporation was hired directly by The University of Alabama Huntsville to provide the Commissioning services. The new Residence Hall was designed by SKT Architects of Huntsville. UA Huntsville is pursuing a LEED Silver rating for their new facility.
Paul Smith, P.E., LEED AP, is the CxA for the project and Rob Nichols, LEED AP is the Lead Cx Technician. All Specifications, Cx Plan and Functional Performance Testing were written by Mr. Smith and he also reviewed both the OPR and BOD. He conducts the bi-weekly Cx meetings and directs all Cx activities. Mr. Nichols produced the Pre-Functional Testing forms performed the field verification and maintains the project Issue Log. Mr. Nichols is also very active in the coordination of Cx activities. Currently both Mr. Smith and Mr. Nichols are participating in the TAB verification process and the Owner Training Verification and both will be present during the Functional Testing process.
The HVAC system is served with chilled water and hot water from the central utility plant and will be metered for energy use. The Commissioning scope of work includes assisting UAH to document the Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR), a preliminary design review to confirm that the engineer’s Basis of Design meets the Owner’s project requirements, review of contractor’s submittals for commissionability, verification of the installation for commissionability, Pre-functional checks of the equipment, TAB verification and Functional checks of the control sequences for all of the systems. Additionally, the electrical systems; lighting control panel, motion sensors for set time, sensitivity and coverage, generator and transfer switch and the fire alarm system for voice evacuation and HVAC shutdown will be Commissioned. The fire pump, general fire alarm and trouble alarm will be interfaced with the Johnson Building Automation System to provide a signal to security personnel on campus. The current project status: completing TAB verification, documenting Owner Training and Functional Testing. This Commissioning will qualify UAH for the Enhanced Commissioning Credit (Energy and Atmospheric Credit 3) for LEED certification.
Project References:
Owner’s Project Manager:
Michael S. Finnegan
Assistant Vice President for Facilities & Operations
The University of Alabama Huntsville
256.824.2542
Facility Administrator:
Mark Cowherd
The University of Alabama Huntsville
256.824.6482
- Chilled/hot water blower coils serving the lower locker room areas and corridors
- Trane Company Building Automation System
- Building Pressurization System
The Gadsden State Community College Multi-Purpose Arena is a 69,107 sq. ft. facility with meeting spaces, Chamber of Commerce offices, caterer’s kitchen, locker rooms and arena floor. The building is served with chilled water provided by an air cooled chiller and hot water supplied from dual natural gas fired boilers. Each water system is a variable flow system serving air handlers, VAV terminal units with hot water reheat and blower coil units. There are five constant volume modular air handlers serving the arena, two VAV air handlers serving the meeting spaces and chamber offices and six constant volume blower coils serving the locker and restroom areas around the Arena. The Arena has two energy recovery ventilation units to provide outside air based on room CO2 levels.
The Commissioning process included Field Installation Verification, Pre-functional Testing of the systems, Functional Testing of the systems, verification of Owner training, review of the Operational and Maintenance Manuals and generation of the Final Commissioning Report. The remaining item under the Warranty Phase is the warranty review prior to the one year inspection.
The Commissioning began during the construction phase of the project. Much of the equipment had been installed and the chilled water system had been started to provide some temperature control and dehumidification to the space. The drawings and specifications were reviewed for commissionability and the equipment checkout forms and the Functional testing forms were generated. A preliminary Commissioning Plan was provided to the commissioning team for review. A preliminary Cx schedule and its relation to the general construction schedule was developed.
During the Commissioning of the HVAC system, 217 items were listed on the Issue Log and all but one of them has been corrected. During testing, some items were detected that after correction will result in a substantial cost savings to the facility. For example, during the Test and Balance verification it was noted that the chilled water differential pressure setpoint had been increased to 15 psig. After investigation it was determined that the system would operate properly with a differential pressure set-point of 5 psig. The set-point was changed and will result in considerably less pump horsepower being used in the chilled water system. Also, during the testing of the energy recovery ventilation units, our team discovered that the economizer controls that stopped the rotation of the energy recovery wheel when the outside temperature is between 45 and 65 degrees did not operate correctly. After much discussion with the manufacturer’s design engineers, Mr. Smith changed the program to allow the wheel to stop during these conditions.
Trends were generated verifying the control function of the system. During the initial commissioning evaluation of the systems controls, substantial variation of the boiler discharge temperature occurred. The Cx team, boiler technical representative and Trane control technician worked to smooth out the response and minimize the temperature variation. The preliminary review of the system trends allowed adjustment to parameters and control loops to provide more accurate response to system variables.
Project References:
Owner’s Representative:
Chris Robinson, Business Service Analyst
Gadsden State Community College
256.439.6831
Engineer:
Doug Rawson, P.E.
Whitaker & Rawson, Inc.
205.870.0801
Project Management:
Hoar Construction
Sandy Jack Brown, Project Superintendent
205.803.2121
