Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Since the end of the holidays the weather has been a touch on the chilly side. In early January there was even a frostbite warning for people venturing on to the streets and the public transport literally froze. So since the New Year there have been 5 snow days, a bank holiday and then my mentor took 3 days sick leave. Combine this with a week long delay to get the energy modeling software and the knock on effect is a delay in productivity. Not always a bad thing except I was hoping to write my TMR using my project as a basis. Now that is in, the tempo is picking up, naturally. The modeling is nearly complete and I am now working on equipment selection and looking at incorporating energy saving technology in to the design. The first is to use a variable refrigerant flow system as the primary heating system. This is an old Asian 50’s technology which is starting to become very popular over here because of its efficiency. The principle is instead of pumping heated air round a building in large inefficient ducts, you simply pump the refrigerant directly to the room it is needed in where a fan coil unit then blows over the expansion vessel producing cold air at the right condition. What is even more impressive is that the expansion vessel can be switched from cooling to heating with an automatic valve change. Even cleverer still as that all the fan coil units (up to 50 odd) can be linked and can become heat recovery units too so if a room is too cold, the refrigerant in a room that is too hot can be directed to the cold room without going through the compressor. The Compressor/condensor unit is kept out side, so no mechanical room needed, and is about the size of a large fridge. As the building is aiming to get big points for green technology this is looking like a good system. The second design is for a Solarwall heating system. Placed on the SE/SW wall of the building this is free heating for relatively little investment ($20,000 for 2000 square feet) provides nearly free heating. A semi permeable polycarbonate shell heats the air, through solar energy, against the black wall which rises up the wall and is accumulated at the top where it is then pumped in to the space through a fabric duct with holes, like an ITC aircon duct. This will be great in the large warehouse area which VRF struggles to heat and often has the large loading door open. I have not worked out the energy produced but this was used in Harrisburg heat my warehouse too (see Matt Fry’s blog) where it has proved very effective.
I took the opportunity to visit my possible next project, Hale Hall. This former 1920’s barrack block was retro fitted with HVAC over the years before catching fire in 2006. Going round the building meant getting dressed in protective suits because of the presence of mould and bird poo. What was strange was that the fire damage was limited to the roof of one side but the whole building was water damaged and trashed. It was like walking through a time tunnel because the place simply had all the top secret stuff ripped out and was left. Not even desks had been cleared. Below are some of the odd HVAC designs I discovered.

As you can see all the HVAC will come out and be replaced! There are a few more weird designs but alas my camera lasted 11 shots at -8. The current budget is for $20 million to do the revamp complete. However the current estimate is $18 million to carry out the demolition alone which includes clearing out the debris and old office equipment. If this had been done at the time in 2006 instead that would have saved a packet. Now a specialist contractor is needed in full 4 Romeo to clear the building because of the biological (and asbestos) hazard. This project is likely to get paused whilst the budget is reviewed.
Two smaller projects are coming my way potentially. One is a new hangar at Ft Drum in up state New York. Based on a current design it will be my first chance on my own to design the HVAC. The second is a small Visitor Control Centre office block of about 5000 square feet which also requires HVAC. I have also been asked to go to West Point next week to look at a barrack block HVAC design. It is to have a new heating/cooling system which consists of underfloor heating in the winter which is then switched to a chilled roof arrangement in the summer. The Department for Public Works is the customer but is concerned that the set up will lead to condensation and mould growth even though it is ventilated. I will be going with the section chief as a technical expert. Best do some reading up!

And in other news…..
The cold weather is set to continue and the deep south is now in chaos after 3 inches of snow fell because they don’t ever get snow and had no ploughs! The Superbowl is this weekend but no Ravens this time as they actually got dropped from the wild card slot after a terrible end to the season. And the gun debate continues after a shooting in a Mall 30 minutes away. Luckily I have a thesis to distract me.