Easy Operation

[coolh2o]

The following pictures are of the physical equipment in a 50 story, 1.4 million sq. ft. building. The plant consisted of 3900 tons cooling capacity. This work was also completed totally in-house. A different crew this time but they were equally motivated. This retro began when the building was 10 years old. All chillers, pumps and cooling tower were completely rebuilt and new DDC control system installed. Industrial instrumentation was used exclusively, 1000 ohm RTD transmitters with adjustable scales, Barton diff. press. transmitters, all tied back to CSI INET control system. Again as Chief Engineer, not only another incredibly good time but an honor to have worked with the men on this crew.



1150 to Trane CVHB "Bench Grinder". These machines were gone through thoroughly. New controls, instrumentation, performance monitors, etc.



Up close and personal... This plant would flat haul the load when finished.



Two of the three 1150 ton machines ready for work! Note "tucked and rolled Armorflex insulation w/ canvas covering,





Weinman condenser water pump with balanced rotating element, new wear rings, casing rings, mech. seals, and even the copper polished.



Weinman chilled water pump. Same work as condenser pump, tucked and rolled Armorflex and polished copper.



Water treament injection station. All stainless steel containers, pneumatic injector pumps and connected to DDC control system. (This station is on the 39th floor.)



Pony plant on 39th floor. 500 ton CVHA Trane "Sidewinder", pumps, chemical treatment station, and Old Glory.



1400 Kw - 1700 hp Stewart & Stevenson generator before overhaul.



Same generator after overhaul, gaskets, new controls, & a couple of dollars worth of paint.



Generator room on fourth floor. (Note chrome plated floor drain and polished copper.


The work in this plant represents a concerted effort of the men who operated and maintained this building. They are some of the finest men I have ever had work for me. This was not a transformation that was just bought with cash, but the result of hard work, attention to detail and tireless effort. The performance and efficiency matched the asthetics. I am proud of the equipment in these photos, but I wish you could see the guys who did the work.

Thanks again for letting me share.

[dave82323]

nicest mechanical rooms I have seen.. the american flag is a great touch, we salute you.....I need to go back to comercial and leave residential.....

[absrbrtek]

They are beautiful mechanical rooms, they did an excellent job. Usualy its out of site out of mind and the mechanical rooms are dumps. When ever I worked in a mechanical room like that it was always an honor. It makes people want to due a better job servicing the equipment!!!!

[coolh2o]

Thanks for the comments. This plant was a lot of fun. As you can imagine this plant intimidated most of the chiller service techs as they didn't know what to touch. I finally settled on one chiller guy who wasn't afraid. He was an intergal part of our crew. He set all the chillers at near perfect operation based on the challenge that they run like they look. The water treatment company faced the same challenge. The results in these photos were three full years in the making and won a string of awards including Physical plant of the year, Energy awards, etc...
But the real thrill was to walk some unknowing person inside the plant and watch his jaw hit the floor.

[mattm]

You run a great ship! Does BOMA do building of the year in your area? Looks like you desereve it.

[coolh2o]

The plant in the "Classic" posting won BOMA building of the year and BOMA Sowthwest region building of the year. This plant was actually cleaner, but the owner did not allow it to be entered in a BOMA competition.

[brent]

Why is there a 500 ton plant on the 39th floor? Does it only handle the load above that floor? I am not familar with high rises. It is unfortunate that most buildings now squeeze the mechanical rooms to an almost unworkable small space.

brent

[sigma]

Where are the boilers? If boiler room looks like this, what do they do during tubes cleaning, cover whole place with drop cloth? You must have a 24/7 operation and keep your crew busy all the time. What happened to original crew?
This place realy looks great.

[coolh2o]

The Chiller located on the 39th floor provides night cooling for computer rooms etc... This building has an enormous amount of equipment room space. The primary chilled water plant is located on and occupies half of the 4th floor. The entire 39th floor is dedicated to mechanical equipment including the 500 ton chiller, high rise fan stations consisting of large Joy vane axial fans and building engineering offices and work shops.

[coolh2o]

Believe it or not.... 1.4 million sq. ft. - 50 floors ALL electric heat. Not a boiler in the place. As for the drop cloths and busy crew... The crew busted tails until the plant got up to our spec but after that it was "Easy Operation" Maintenance was much easier, problems detected faster, unexpected breakdowns almost non existant and only required touch-up upon completion of maintenance.

As for the original crew... I was hired by a different company after I completed the plant shown in the classic posting and had to develop another crew.... Operators, mechanics, control guys, electricians, etc... Start from the beginning with Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow and basic thermodynamics through chiller application and energy management. Really a great time watching a crew develop.

Thanks for the compliments

[md master]

The wall of pride should contain a picture of the dedicated and driven crew that accomplished that job.

[Stamas]

You got me in trouble. I got a woody lookin g at these beautiful shots and my wife thinks I was watching porn!


Nice work anyway.

[coolh2o]

There was always a joke around my house that I could tell my wife that I was late getting home because a beautiful blonde in a red convertible stopped and picked me up and we were having wild passionate sex... and she would say bullsh@#! You were playing with that damn building again!