Construct Chiller Plant

IMEG provided mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engineering services for the VAMC campus in Columbus in order to design and construct a new remote 5,200-sf chiller plant addition to a recently completed Energy Center (boiler plant) which services the Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care Center. The new chiller plant will replace the existing chiller plant (located within the existing facility) and be sized to accommodate the current building cooling demand (as well as future anticipated demand) as the Ambulatory Care Center facility grows from 330,000-sf to 560,000-sf.

The new chiller plant will utilize high efficiency centrifugal electric chillers with roof-mounted, open-cell cooling towers. The new plant will include four (4) 800-ton chillers with matching cooling towers and provide N+1 redundancy for up to the future footprint (560,000-sf). The chilled water will be delivered via four (4) 1600 GPM variable-flow pumps configured in a variable-primary configuration. The cooling towers will be provided with four (4) 2400 GPM pumps. This equipment will be placed on emergency power so as to ensure chilled water service during power outage.

The chiller plant addition will be provided with a dedicated, packaged rooftop HVAC system for cooling and makeup air. A refrigerant monitoring system will generate the operation of a new dedicated exhaust fan.

Included in the project is the routing of the new chilled water mains to back-feed the old system. It has been determined that routing the chilled water mains across the ambulatory care center’s roof in order to get to the existing plant is the best option. This will allow for better distribution of chilled water flow as well as provide sizable mains for future vertical expansion of the facility.

Other noteworthy aspects of the project include new water treatment equipment, controls workstation, phasing out plan for existing chiller equipment, and re-balancing of existing chilled water coils throughout the facility.