Old Johnson Controls Pnumatics.

[york_hvac]

Over the summer, and friend and I were surveying a sound system, and I thought these old HVAC controls looked cool, so I took a few photos for you guys.

Here are two of the AHU's that they control:





One of the control panels:



Inside one of the panels:



Motor Controls/Disconnects:

[amickracing]

The more I have to deal with electronic controls, the more I love pneumatics.

sweet pictures

[absrbrtek]

The control panel looks pristine. Usually they look like spagetti from people hacking them up. Nice pics.

[freddy-b]

WOW, I have not seen a pneumatic panel that nicely maintained in 20 years.

[york_hvac]

I'm glad you guys like the pics
This is the only building High School in Loudoun County, VA that still has working pneumatic controls. I have no idea how they interface it with the EMS system. Oldest school building in the county too. I have seen the original, 1962 Blueprints for the 2nd oldest high school, and they used to have pneumatics. But it is now all electronic, Andover DDC.

[ricm]

I take care of two buildings that use Pneumatics. It's a true story, that after many years of many techs fixing untimely problems, can cause the panels to look like crapsoda.

The further I delve into pneumatics, to more I appreciate their simplicity.

[freddy-b]

Just noticed ....With the exeption of that filter that looks a little beyond done.

[DeltaT]

I'm glad you guys like the pics
This is the only building High School in Loudoun County, VA that still has working pneumatic controls. I have no idea how they interface it with the EMS system. Oldest school building in the county too. I have seen the original, 1962 Blueprints for the 2nd oldest high school, and they used to have pneumatics. But it is now all electronic, Andover DDC.

Those controls aren't as old as they could be. There are plenty of pneumatics that go back earlier cause I use to design and sell systems for that area in the early 60's.

One of the last I did was a school near the mountains and the panel board that I designed had to be painted pink! We had to bring it in the shop, load it in my car and I had to drive it to the job site for installation.

So if you see a pink control panel mounted inside a gym, well that was me. Also look down on the bottom right hand side of the old control diagrams where the drafting initials are and if you see GEC, that's me also.

The last high school I did was near Mclean, VA and it was purely high tech, for the 70's anyway. I think it was Woodrow Wilson and it was just on the inside of 395.

Thanks for the pictures. They take me back to when workmanship had a meaning.

[york_hvac]

Wow, thats cool DeltaT! I remember you told me you used to work in the Northern Virginia area when I posted something about Lake Braddock Secondary. Did you ever do any work for that school? Ever heard of Loudoun Valley HS?
I'll have to take a look at those drawings now I have actually become really good friends with our building engineer, and he has all of the original documentation for the school on file, really neat stuff to look at and read.

[DeltaT]

Wow, thats cool DeltaT! I remember you told me you used to work in the Northern Virginia area when I posted something about Lake Braddock Secondary. Did you ever do any work for that school? Ever heard of Loudoun Valley HS?
I'll have to take a look at those drawings now I have actually become really good friends with our building engineer, and he has all of the original documentation for the school on file, really neat stuff to look at and read.

Way too many buildings/schools to remember and way too long ago! I remember that ASHRE classified three types of school unit ventilators..is what they called them back then -- and I sure did my share.

I originally worked for Johnson Service Co. at 900 N. Stafford St. in Arlington, VA as an application engineer. There we did our own drafting of control diagrams.

Then in the 70's I worked for Honeywell in Va., DC & Md or all sorts of stuff including the sewage treatment plant on the Potomac. Now that was a job to hold your nose on!

Yep, look down at the initials of the draftsman and if it shows GEC, that is me!

[sokoservices]

Wow, thats cool DeltaT! I remember you told me you used to work in the Northern Virginia area when I posted something about Lake Braddock Secondary. Did you ever do any work for that school? Ever heard of Loudoun Valley HS?
I'll have to take a look at those drawings now I have actually become really good friends with our building engineer, and he has all of the original documentation for the school on file, really neat stuff to look at and read.

I do work in the Northern Virginia Area currently. I am a building engineer for three buildings in Fairfax.

[tpa-fl]

Way too many buildings/schools to remember and way too long ago! I remember that ASHRE classified three types of school unit ventilators.

They're still called unit ventilators today and yes they still sell those damn things too. My hatred of them comes from my old high school days. By the time I got to my HS, the HVAC system was 30 years old and had seen better days. Typical gov't thinking throughout. They had done some additions but never bothered to increase chiller capacity. Nor were they fond of maintenance. So after 30 years the unit ventilators were only good for removing sensible heat and removed practically no latent, and did so as noisily as possible. Water routinely condensed on the concrete walls & floors of the place. Nasty. The pneumatic system was shot, of course. Rather than repair the pneumatics, the maintenance crews has installed toggle switches to the blowers. You'd wiggle a pencil or pair of scissors through a bent part of the grille and turn it on/off as needed. Human thermostats.

Nice to see pictures of how the pneumatics were supposed to look (and work). Those disconnects + greenfield make me think the system was redone at some point.

[supertek65]

you think that is old??????????????????????????????????
that is a clean panel, but I work with these panels every single day!!!!!!!!!!!!
t-9000 night setback, t-5800 receiver controllers.
epv,pev, reversing relays,
i have more of that than ddc stuff.

st65

[network 101]

I would check the return air humidity and mixed air temps thay look a little low=-)

[Pneuma]

I always liked working with Pneumatics. I do a lot of work in VA and I actually refurbished the cooling tower at Lake Braddock High, but this was mid 80's the school was probably half the size and had an absorption chiller. I'll bet the chiller and tower are gone by now. Those panels look pretty nice.

[york_hvac]

I always liked working with Pneumatics. I do a lot of work in VA and I actually refurbished the cooling tower at Lake Braddock High, but this was mid 80's the school was probably half the size and had an absorption chiller. I'll bet the chiller and tower are gone by now. Those panels look pretty nice.

[I know this is an older thread, but I just looked at it for the first time since January]

Hey, I went to school there for 3 years! Lake Braddock was a fun place. I really got interested into HVAC when I went there. First year I was there was the year before they started on the big renovation. During the renovation, all of the t-grid was removed from the school and it was cool to see all of the new VAV boxes, ductwork, M and T Series AHUs get installed. I remember that there is now 1 large and 4 smaller cooling towers serving the school.

Oh, here are two pictures from the 1962 Blueprints for the from Loudoun Valley.



Here is the exhaust fan (aka former A/C) backstage. We call her "Big Sucky"