Had a unique opportunity to recently tour mechanical spaces of the new McGlothlin Medical Education Center on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus, and I thought you guys might like to see some of the "big stuff" they are using. This is a nearly complete, 12 story, approximately 200,000 square foot building that will contain classrooms, auditoriums, offices, and operating room simulation rooms. It is LEED Silver certified. Primary air is supplied by 3 Large Semco Pinnacle Primary Ventilation units. Each unit contains supply and exhaust fans with VFDs, and energy wheel, dehumidification wheel, chilled water, hot water, and steam coils. Cooling is provided by 3 Carrier Evergreen Chillers, also with VFDs. Steam is provided by a central steam plant that also supplies steam to the rest of the downtown campus, while I believe the water is heated locally. Terminal heating and cooling is provided by radiators and chilled beams. Kudos to all who were involved with this project! Excited to see the place open this Spring!
Here's one of the large auditoriums. Projected images will be provided by 2 projectors, blended into one image. Each student is provided a microphone, power and ethernet ports for laptops.
Overall view of mechanical penthouse, showing 2 of the 3 chillers
Varoius views of the 3 Primary Air Handlers. Note the composition notebook filter logbook in the last picture As a reference for size, each access door is about 6 feet high.
Blurry, but here is an inside look at the energy wheel.
Chilled water coil.
Dehumidification wheel.
Main control panel for AHU-3. BACview controllerin the middle. Exhaust and Supply VFDs to the left.
Heating water pipes. Not sure what this "station" is for, but they were testing control valves when this picture was taken.
Main steam connection in the "steam tunnel"
One of the many chilled beams.
Here's a cool part of the building. In the sub basement, there is a large tank that is used to house rain-water that will be used to flush all of the toilets.
Reminds me of when I worked at the James Center Towers. Nice to see some fellow RVA's here!
"If perfection is your goal, you may end up with good enough, what might you end up with when good enough is your goal?"
Wayne Pendergast, efficientcomfort.net
Wow, they have an incredibly efficient system there. The energy savings should pay for ALL of the equipment in 10 years or so depending on your energy rates. So they went chilled beams throughout the facility - should be nice and quiet. Are they all Carrier induction beams or did they go with the SEMCO/Flaktwoods chilled beam offering?
Hey, thanks for posting those pics! That audiovisual system in the auditorium was my "baby" that's one of my coworkers down there up front. It was a total PIA lining those projectors up to blend the pictures seamlessly. Downstairs of the auditorium are the two big racks of processing equipment that make it all work. Great to see the "masterpieces" of other trades working down there...we all did a great job on that place!
As a reference for size, each access door is about 6 feet high.
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