Heat Pump System For New College Classrooms Using Integrated Project Delivery
This month’s Facility File will focus on the B2B June test for an HVAC application on a college campus with a building program to construct a new 12-classroom facility. The project delivery method is integrated project delivery (IPD).
As a rule, college and university support services are very knowledgeable about the HVAC infrastructure that is required to assure the correct space environment. Still, it would be very beneficial for these individuals, along with the rest of the IPD team, to read ASHRAE 2015 Application Handbook, chapter 7 (Educational Facilities) to refresh their knowledge of ASHRAE’s guidelines when pre- paring to authorize the designing classrooms. In addition, chapter 34 of the handbook discusses geothermal energy in preparation of designing and constructing a water ground source heat pump (GSHP) system. The owner’s facility management group should also read chapters 36 through 43 of the 2015 Handbook to assist in preparing for operating and maintaining a GSHP system. This informa- tion combined with the owner’s own knowledge of operating this type of room will assist the IPD team in understanding intricacies of owning, operating, and managing geothermal installations. It is also recommended that the owner-design team read chapter 59 of the same ASHRAE handbook titled HVAC Security.
The IPD team will consist of the college president, campus operations manager, project manager from the school’s construction management group, owner representative who will also provide third-party commissioning and air and water-balancing, HVAC con- sultant engineer as the team leader, architect, electrical and plumbing consultants, acoustic consultant, environmental/soils consul- tant, security subconsultants, general contractor, and HVAC/electrical/plumbing subcontractors.
With all these design guidelines from ASHRAE, the IPD team will meet with the college’s O&M staff to discuss specific building stan- dards that need to be applied to this project. For this project, the facility operation is an in-house staff and not an outsourced group, and they will want to be assured that adequate contract specification requirements include pertinent O&M, training, preventive maintenance work order system, and energy operating budget elements.
In the Phase 3 Concept Development of the IPD project, the campus operations manager and her O&M staff will want to con- tribute information to the design team member’s writing of the contract specification, and more specifically, regarding the following activities: service contracts, parts inventory, and as-built drawings requirements. Reviewing the design documents, this O&M staff will want to be assured that equipment serviceability is adequate and safe and that there is a clear understanding of how geothermal applications work throughout the year.
For the June B2B IPD test, the team will work closely together with owner-designer-builder, based on a building program construction budget so the general contractor and his in-house engineering and estimator (along with the prime subcontractors) will be involved in the design phase and be able to contribute collectively to the contract documents. In the construction phase, the O&M staff will want to revisit the issues noted above during the design phase. Next comes the startup and commissioning phases.
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