Classic!

[coolh2o]

The following pictures are of the physical plant in a 33 story, 435,00 sq. ft. office tower built in 1963 that we finished renovating in 1993. I did not get "before" pictures as I wish I had, but this plant looked as if Freddie Krueger lived there. ALL work was done in-house by an exceptional group of building engineers. This plant was disassembled and put back together in a very meticulous fashion complete with new DDC controls and new instrumentation, As Chief Engineer of this project I am proud to put these on the "Wall of Pride".

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103900_1.jpg

(2)- 250 hp Powermaster boilers, completely re-skinned, new refractory, gas valves, controls, etc.

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103901_1B.jpg

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103902_4.jpg

(5)- Peerless secondary chilled water pumps. Completely rebuilt with new wear rings, casing rings, balanced rotating element, new mechanical seals and wrapped up in a neat little package. (Note the brass plates on the pump bases... they must have weighed 3 pounds each.)

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103903_5.jpg

(2)- Peerless condenser water pumps. Same work as chilled water pumps.

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103904_6.jpg

(2)- Peerless secondary chilled water pumps.... Ditto! (2)- Carrier 19C 600 ton centrifugical chillers in background.

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103905_7.jpg

600 ton Carrier 19C wearing her best new clothes.

http://ww2.imagewiz.net/images/hvac/103906_8.jpg

Supplemental cooling unit with Nalco SS wwater treatment containers in background.

As you can tell I am still proud of this project some 10 years later. This crew was incredible to work with. Thanks for letting me share.

[coolwhip]

Whats the horse power on those pumps? Great pictures!!

[coolh2o]

Secondary chilled water pumps 25hp, Primary chilled water pumps 40hp.

[coolwhip]

I would hate to pay one of my guys commission on replaceing one of those babies. I would though.

[i_got_ideas]

I only get to work on residential stuff so it's great getting to see this stuff, can I work on it once, can I can I? :)

That's so damn pretty, great job!

[otto]

Looks like it would pass a USN Captain's inspection.
Bravo Zulu

[mattm]

That's a nice looking plant. Got to ask though. On those boxed in pumps do you have to cut all that out if you would have to work on it or are they somehow removeable?

[coolh2o]

We built everything to be easily removed for service. Even the insulation on the evap heads was installed to be easily removed. the dog houses on the pumps had 4 screws holding them in place. remove the screws and lift. The problem with this plant when Freddie Krueger lived there was a lack of maintenance and dramatic loss of performance. We devised a way to make the maintenance easier and the performance pretty much took care of itself.

[mattm]

Looks great. There's a building here in town that had stainless steal insulated boxes made to go over their pumps. They look sweet but outrageously expensive.

[coolh2o]

Yeah... Stainless is the sweetest. We chrome plated some stuff in a few buildiings but stainless is best. I worked in Taiwan for a while and stainless was EVERYWHWERE.... even ladders and walkways... it looked really good.

[plant-rat]

CoolH2O...

How many of these have you done? Is this like a trademark of yours? I saw the pictures above in "Easy Operation"... Man you have dedicated some time. I love the boilers.

[grasshopper]

Wow! They are so pretty and clean they look like displays.

[coolprod]

Beeeaaauuutttiiifffuuulllll!!! How long did it take you to complete that job!!

[coolh2o]

This plant took about 3 years to complete to this level. The building load had changed considerably since the original design in the early 1960's and we were looking to get maximum performance from each piece if equipment so considerable time was spent rebuilding and testing. After rebuilding everything, installing controls, insulation and repainting this project was about 39 months in the making. We were also responsible for operating the plant, answering hot/cold calls on 32 floors of office space, lighting, electrical, plumbing calls on same 32 floors, setting up a predictive maintenance program, training building engineers, and a miriad of other things during this time. But all in all it was a fun project.

[woods mech]

That's the kind of work I miss. Residential A/C is OK but it is nothing like working with the big stuff.

[boilerbob]

Awesome!!! It is rare to see equipment like this. Got any openings?

[coolh2o]

We had a real good time with this plant. We trained some young building engineers during the retrofit of these two plants that have moved on to make good chief engineers. After complete teardowns of the plant and full control istallation afterward they got a fast track 3 year education in how to maintain and operate a large chilled water and low pressure steam plant.

[ricm]

Please leave your shoes outside when you tour this plant, the maid was just in. :D

I hope they bring the students of the trade schools through your building... It would give them a goal to strive for.

[bumpkin]

man, that's some pretty high profile work your'e doing. All I've ever dealt with is residential and some light commercial stuff; never anything like that. How much would a job like that run?

[2hot2coolme]

Originally posted by ricm


I hope they bring the students of the trade schools through your building... It would give them a goal to strive for.
[/B]

Or it might scare the hell out of em.

[ricm]

Yeah, 2hot... like when I was 18 trying to troubleshoot a Lennox DMS4 in the dead of winter... I was actually hoping I'd freeze to death after about two hours of mysery in the cold... faced with the wire demon from hell.

[hugodrax]

Wow I would love to tour one of those facilities, Real nice!

[coolh2o]

ricm...

There were no trade schools available to teach plant operations but this plant and the plant in the "Easy Operation" post were used to train operators inside our company. We taught heat transfer and fluid flow, boiler operation, chiller operation, refrigeration, energy management, building automation, water treatment, predictive maintenance, saftey, etc. My senior staff in these two buildings were master electricians, master plumbers, journeyman mechanics, industrial control techs, ex- Navy nukes and electronics techs. We brought in young guys and taught them how to operate a building "RIGHT". I really agree with the thought of bringing in the apprenices and teaching them right. After all, we and only we, are responsible for passing the trade to the next generation.

[86turbodsl]

thanks for the photos. Incredible.

[ricm]

Yes, I couldn't agree with you more coolh20, There is a beautiful facility in Calgary Alberta, The Southern Alberta School of Technology. (S.A.I.T.) has a fabulous set up... a CoGen system that shares the load for the City of Calgary. Although I'm not 100% up on just what they have, I was very impressed with their chillers, absorbtion systems, and the steam gennys... big stuff. The two story facility covers a full city block. Dedicated for CoGen with the City. Not to mention a magnificent training ground for up and coming techs. I know many a tech since the late seventies have learned much from this system.

Your facility in both posts match or definietly exceed the one in S.A.I.T. Different applications, mind you... but a marvel at best. :)

[bmf]

it'd be fun to work on some of that stuff

[djantz]

I used to work for a mfgr's rep for Vapower, Sellers and Miura boilers as well as Cat Electrical generators in the Detroit area a while back. I remember a lot of the mechanical rooms and physical plants that I visited on service calls. There were some that were unbelievably hot and filthy, but I had to put on the coveralls and sweat it out, many times I had to bring spare clothes. Some were old, but you could see that somebody cared at one time. There were a few hospitals that had higher standards for their mechanical areas than their patient treatment areas. I think I worked more efficiently in the clean ones. I hate to admit it, but you just want to get done quickly and leave the dirty ones. I would be pleased to walk into this plant on a sevice call. Lighting is excellent too. Is that the normal lighting or augmented for the pics? Looks great.

[sigma]

I noticed that there are two gauges on top of each boiler. I am sure that one is for steam pressure but what is the other one?

[sigma]

Originally posted by djantz
I used to work for a mfgr's rep for Vapower, Sellers and Miura boilers as well as Cat Electrical generators in the Detroit area a while back. I remember a lot of the mechanical rooms and physical plants that I visited on service calls. There were some that were unbelievably hot and filthy, but I had to put on the coveralls and sweat it out, many times I had to bring spare clothes. Some were old, but you could see that somebody cared at one time. There were a few hospitals that had higher standards for their mechanical areas than their patient treatment areas. I think I worked more efficiently in the clean ones. I hate to admit it, but you just want to get done quickly and leave the dirty ones. I would be pleased to walk into this plant on a sevice call. Lighting is excellent too. Is that the normal lighting or augmented for the pics? Looks great.

Would you say that plants with high pressure boilers are cleaner and better looking then plants utilizing low pressure boilers?
High pressure boilers require operators working around the clock and these operators have plenty of time to keep mechanical rooms clean and neat. From my own experience I know that with low pressure boilers, operator is expected to do other jobs during 40 hour week.

[coolh2o]

The two guages on the boilers are for tepmerature and pressure. These boilers are low pressure steam that provide heating for the building. This building had a two-pipe system with a heat exchanger to provide heat transfer to the convector loop and steam was sent directly to the heating coils in two bigassahus.

I have done a few plants to this level of detail and have found the best ones almost always have one thing in common... They are usually occupied by the owner and are percieved as a long term investment. When I worked as a chief engineer I would always make this a a strong consideration when accepting the job.

As for the outside service techs that we brought into our facility.... We hand selected them from the entire city. Stuck with 1 chiller tech for about 8 years. If he was busy on another account I would wait. We provided him with tools, parts storage, locker room, showers, break room with complimentary drinks and always provided assistance when he needed it. We had the best and we tried our damnedest to take care of him. In return we had the best running centrifugals in town and were able to do a lot of neat things outside the manufacturers recommendations... like running 1500 ton CVHBs on liquid refrigerant temp instead of leaving CHW temp... but that is another story. Take care of your service techs if you want to stay on top.

[djantz]

The cleaner ones were well staffed and usually had a couple operating engineers around all the time and they were all high pressure steam and hot oil boilers. What you are saying is probably true, but I don't remember working on any low pressure units of any size.

[coolh2o]

Our low pressure boilers were usually in the 250 to 500 horsepower range providing heat only in a southern climate. My operating engineers primary focus was on chiller plant operation which I had between 1600 and 9000 tons. The plants you see in my two posts here are both in Dallas, Texas. Oddly enough the "Easy operation" post in this section was a 1.4 million sq. ft. building with all electric heat. I guess your emphasis is always on what is more important to your specific facility. In the southern part of the country while loosing cooling isn't "dangerous" like loosing heating in Minnnesota, loosing cooling still makes the building inhabitable with OAT at or above 100 deg. F.

I don't mean to sound arrogant but as you can see from the photos, my staff didn't care what kind of equipment we had, we didn't willingly let anybody do a better job no matter what part of the country they were in or what kind of equipment they had.

[Edited by coolh2o on 10-24-2004 at 09:43 AM]

[coolh2o]

Here ya go Dice.... Just another plant operator trying to find his way around.

[smoothoperator]

WOW Cool.... Just when I thought I had seen it all. This is fabulous. I have never seen any plants even close! You have done an outstanding job.

[bb]

double post

[Edited by bb on 06-16-2005 at 10:26 PM]

[bb]

I do residential. This looks like something off of the Star Ship Enterprise to me.

Great work! To see that is Very humbling.

[greenm&m]

That looks real good give yourself a pat on the back for that

[coolh2o]

Ti is funny that you say that. I used to walk visitors out onto the plant floor and say "welcome to the Starship Enterprise". Sort of a humbling effect.

[Shophound]

Originally posted by coolh2o
Ti is funny that you say that. I used to walk visitors out onto the plant floor and say "welcome to the Starship Enterprise". Sort of a humbling effect.

Man, your two physical plant posts sent a wave of nostalgia through me from my Navy days...how we used to bucket and sponge, scrape and paint, and work our butts off to have the best looking and running 1200 psi steam powered engine room on the whole ship. We were actually given a citation from the captain for that very reason...best engineering space on the ship. Between us and Number One Fireroom, we could hold the load no problem.

Your two plants are nothing but flat out beautiful work. I am now into my second month of my first central plant operator gig in my HVAC career. The facilities manager of my building wants to do something similar in our plant...I'll have to show him these posts to serve as a benchmark to strive toward!

BTW I grew up in Dallas and thought I recognized the Southland Life (now Adam's Mark Hotel) building peeking through one of the windows in the "Easy Operation" post. I'm wondering what two buildings these plants were in...sure wouldn't mind contacting them for a tour if you thought these plants were in still as good a shape as you left them.

And I know what you mean about the Starship Enterprise thing. My new gig is in Fort Worth and twice we've had member prof. koldenhott's students from Lincoln Tech tour the central plant. Both times it never fails there's a few that simply drool over the equipment and beg us to hire them! Personally, I wish I had gone back into central plant work years ago after leaving the Navy. Sure beats resi attics and crawlers and light commercial rooftops with a Santa Ana blowing through (S. Cal)!

[coolh2o]

Thanks for the compliment. Both the Classic post and the Easy operation post are in the Dallas central business district. Both buildings are on opposite sides of Thanksgiving square. The Classic post is located at 1600 Pacific and the Easy Operation post is located at 1601 Bryan. I haven't seen them in some time so I can't vouche for their current condition.

You have the first and most important requirement to achieve this level of work and that is support from the property manager. I was fortunate enough to work for the same property manager in both of these buildings. He wanted to be the best and win awards and allowed us to do what was required to achieve those goals.

I am currently doing some work in Fort Worth and was wondering where your building is located. I would like to see a work in progress. thanks again for the comments.

[Shophound]

I am currently doing some work in Fort Worth and was wondering where your building is located. I would like to see a work in progress. thanks again for the comments.

We haven't actually started any major changes yet, other than doing some housekeeping down in the plant to make it more presentable. I am the central plant operator assistant, my boss (ozone drone) and I work together operating and maintaining the plant. Up till now he hasn't had much time to turn toward beautifying the plant but it is now hoped with me aboard and coming up to speed on my duties we can find more time to spiff the place up. The facilities manager is all for this and I hope to show him this post, as I mentioned earler.

I am at the Amon Carter Museum. If you would like to come by, my boss says that's fine for touring the plant. All I would need is advance notice so I can meet you and take you to the plant. Being that we haven't begun the spiff up work yet, I would like to bounce some ideas off you since you have such wonderful experience in this regard. I'm not sure how much we have budgeted for this but right now the FM is taking bids for staining the plant's floor.

I would think the natural progression is to get all the overhead and equipment painting completed, and do the floor the very last thing. We do want to color code the piping much as you have done in your two plants. I also like the idea of the canvas over the armorflex, as even at four years old our chiller insulation paint is cracking from where it has had impact. And that tuck and roll Armorflex...just how do you do that? It sure makes for a nice finished product.

One of the things that concerns me, and I believe someone else mentioned, is when the annuals are done on the boilers...it can get messy. Right now there's plenty of evidence of that on the white walls around the boilers and my first thought was to perhaps make the walls a two tone deal (a wainscot of sorts, if you will), with the lower portion dark with a high gloss finish to hide dirt and allow it to be washed off. The lighter color above would keep the place from being too dark.

Thanks for responding. I think once our busy times and warm weather subsides a bit, and budget allows, we can begin to take steps toward our plant perhaps somewhat resembling those two beauties over in Big D.

[coolh2o]

Let me know when your schedule lets up a bit, I would really like to see your facility and hear your plans.

I understand your concerns about performing annuals on the finished product, but it is not that big of a deal. Your service people will definitely step up their game once you have the project complete. I found that most of the mess that occurred at annual inspection time ceased to be an issue once the service people understood your requirements. It is not nearly as hard to clean up if they don't make a big mess in the first place.

The "Easy Operation" post was a good example. I just told them to get out the drop cloths before they started any job. I completed four plants to this level and never had much trouble.

I am looking forward to seeing your facility just let me know when you have the time.

[Shophound]

We had a meeting this morning with our department head, who is the facilities manager, and I told him about your past two plants and how well they turned out. I told him you would like to come by to see the plant and that by doing so we could bounce some ideas off of you as to how best to go about upgrading the appearance of our plant. He was all for it. He also said he'd like to get moving on this pretty soon, within this budget cycle.

So, if you are available this week to come by, that would be good. My email here at the museum is:

cameronT-at-cartermuseum.org (address altered to avoid spambots, just turn the -at- to @)

Again, just let me know when you'd like to come by, and I'll know when to expect you.

Of course I'm sure you'll enjoy a tour of the plant for its own sake as well as for an idea session.

[inganeer]

You certainly do first class work.... Or maybe these are in a class by themselves.

[coolh2o]

Thanks for the comments.

[inganeer]

Would it be possible to visit these facilities? I am begining work on a plant and would really like to look at these as I am collecting ideas for my facility. Anyway I could get in touch with you and discuss possibilites?

[coolh2o]

Drop me an email and I will see if I can set up a visit. I haven't been in either one of these plants in a while but I think I may be able to set up a visit.

[rookie 19]

now thats sweet

[Dowadudda]

All that looks like to me is work. I'll shag the service calls but you can have all the weldin and fittin.

All you guys are goo goo ga over this, and I understand it may look cool if you never been around this stuff, but that took some nasty hard work to get it this way. It's a fitters life for sure.

[coolh2o]

Work, Work and more work. Nearly 3 years in the making. It took specialists in several trades to get it to this level - mechanics, control techs, plant operators, electricians, plumbers, etc.. We could not have gotten here without everybody. I would love to do another one.